Raging Duff

Did Bloc MP Benoit Sauvageau kill himself?

According to Quebec’s LCN all-news television network, Repentigny bloquiste Benoît Sauvageau threatened to kill himself shortly before the acccident that took his life. Several sources told La Presse that Sauvageau drove off following a heated discussion with someone close to him.

Sauvageau’s vehicle struck a tow truck parked alongside rue Notre-Dame, in Repentigny, Monday morning. The 42-year-old MP, the father of four, died several hours later in hospital. There were no signs that Sauvageau had attempted to brake before hitting the tow truck, but according to Quebec coroner sp[okesperson Marie-Eve Bilodeau, any conclusion has to await the official police report, toxicological report, results of the autopsy, testimony from witnesses. “We have to consider all possibilities — cellular use, illness, suicide or maybe speeding." A coroner’s report could take six to eight months, she says.

Several media outlets, including our Corus sister station 98.5, hinted that the popular MP’s spouse called 911 to alert them to her husband’s intention of taking his own life. Repentigny police are refusing comment, citing 911 confidentiality.

A caller followed crime reporter Michel Poirier’s segment to describe how he was listening to the police scanner when he heard the alert for to local police to be on the lookout for a vehicle answering the description of Sauvageau’s.

Officially, nobody’s saying a word. Yesterday, Bloc québécois leader Gilles Duceppe demanded that the media respect the right of Sauvageau’s family, friends and colleagues to mourn in private. Funeral services will be held at Repentigny’s Notre-Dame-des-Champs church Saturday.

When he was the Bloc’s public accounts committee representative, Sauvageau led the demand for a probe into what happened to the millions that the federal government poured into the 2005 World Aquatic Championships after the suicide of organizer Yvon Desrochers. Desrochers, a longtime Liberal with ties to many members of the federal party’s Quebec wing, shot himself outside the Radio-Canada building on Feb. 2, 2005. His death was ruled a suicide, but details of the financial black hole surrounding the world aquatic championships — remarkably similar to the sponsorship scandal playing itself out at the same time — may never be revealed. Regardless of his political affiliation, Benoit Sauvageau was a hard-working, dedicated public servant. There’s more to his death than we’ve heard so far.

Posted by Jim Duff at 8:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I don't suppose it matters a whit to the millions of North Americans who think that shopping at big-box stores like Wal-Mart, Canadian Tire and Costco is their inalienable right, but what would happen if Falun Gong adherents set up their kiosks in the parking lots outside these temples of commerce and urged people not to shop there?
The local public security apparatus would sweep them up and jail them for public nuisance, right?
The only difference between Canada and China is that in Canada, we don't execute them, first having removed their organs and serotyped them in preparation for the wealthy foreigners who jet in to wherever the executions are taking place.

Yes, this goes on. It has been witnessed and documented by scores of independent international observers.
But it's not going to get any official notice in North America, because 75 percent of the goods we now consume are produced in China, from auto parts to almond crunch.
We'd run out of meretricious dollar-store trash in weeks if we declared a halt to trade with the world's largest executioner.
Funny, isn't it? We bleat on about human rights abuses in Cuba, North Korea and Iran, but we turn a blind eye to the granddaddy of them all. It's not to say human-rights abuses aren't going on in those places, but by snapping up Made in China goods in the big-box stores, aren't we condoning precisely that?
Duff

Posted by Jim Duff at 6:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When Canadian troops were first dispatched to Afghanistan to search for Osama bin Laden's mythical anthrax laboratories in the caves of Tora Bora, we were the good guys on a bright, shiny mission. Remember how we held the moral high ground? We were going to rescue the Afghans from Taliban tyranny and generations of war-torn misery. We would educate the women, strip off their burkhas and drag an entire nation out of Islamic feudalism.

So here we are, almost five years later, and the mission has degenerated into a daily battle of survival against suicide bombers and angry Afghans. In the eighties, the Russkies were the enemy; now it's Canada.
Is this what we wanted?

We should never have been in Kandahar in the first place, but Paul Martin was so busy saving his job, he delayed making the decision on Canada's posting as part of the international peacekeeping force until only Kandahar was available. Not even the Americans wanted Kandahar and its opium-funded warlords.
Now we're stuck. Canadian men and women are bleeding and dying for nothing in a failed state that nobody thinks can survive, let alone make its way to that Western Mecca called democratic freedom.

Stephen Harper's Conservative government would do much to repair their eroding voter base here in Quebec by pulling out of Afghanistan, but I think Harper's so concerned about breaking step with his American friends and allies to fret about what Afghanistan is doing to Canadians.

He should worry. What happens when some Canadian Armed Forces renegade starts asking why Quebec regiments aren't part of the troop rotation into Kandahar? The Black Watch has lost a comrade in arms, but where are the Royal 22nd? The Fusiliers? Nowhere to be found on the casualty lists of dead and wounded. And they won't be, because Harper knows the impact of dead Quebeckers will smash what little chance he has left to build on those 10 seats he won last time around.

No wonder we're hearing so much sanctimonious bloviation about Canada's role in bringing peace, order and good government to the Afghan people. Political expediency is a lousy reason to send men and women to war.

Posted by Jim Duff at 6:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)