Posts Tagged 'Bev Oda'

HomeTag: Bev Oda

Ignorance is Strength: Good Financial Management at Work

Ignorance is Strength: Good Financial Management at Work

McLeod Group Blog, December 22, 2014

According to George Orwell’s Ministry of Truth, ‘War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.’ In the Harper government’s brave new world, bad financial budgeting is good financial management.

That’s the only conclusions you can draw from government departments that planned and over-budgeted so badly in 2013-14 that they were able to return $7.2 billion in lapsed funds to the treasury. Treasury Board President Tony Clement calls this incredible mess ‘a sign of good ...

Continue Reading →

Categories: Blog

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Out of Focus: Canadian Aid Merry-Go-Round

Out of Focus: Canadian Aid Merry-Go-Round

McLeod Group Blog, July 4, 2014

To the extent that any of them take Canada seriously as an aid donor, our ‘focus’ countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America must be tearing their metaphorical hair out. Long criticized by the OECD for spreading Canadian aid too thin and over too many countries, the Harper government cut the number in 2009 from 25 to 20. Out went eight very poor countries in Africa and two in Asia. Perhaps thinking nobody was watching, ...

Continue Reading →

Categories: Blog

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hey, Big Spender: Budget Cuts at CIDA

May 15, 2012

There is a curious juxtaposition between CIDA Minister Bev Oda’s sense of personal entitlement – a room at the Savoy, $1000-a-day limousines – and the ruthlessness with which she has presided over cuts to CIDA’s operational budget. It isn’t just the luxury spending on herself as compared with how many children might have been inoculated with that $1000. It seems that no amount of bad behaviour on her part will go unrewarded by the Prime Minister.

By reappointing her ...

Continue Reading →

Categories: Blog

Tags: , , , ,

Haiti: More Announceables

January 3, 2012

It has been two years since the devastating earthquake in Haiti that killed over 300,000 people and left 1.5 million homeless. In January, on the anniversary of the event, Canada’s Minister for International Cooperation, Bev Oda, paid a visit to Port au Prince, with the customary blizzard of press releases.

One is hard-pressed to imagine the joy of Haitians at yet another visit from the Honourable Bev, who has made multiple trips to the country during her tenure ...

Continue Reading →

Categories: Blog

Tags: , , , ,

Transparency and Accountability in Foreign Policy: Not

December 1, 2011

Three events in recent weeks underline the lack of transparency in the way the government is implementing foreign policy. Everyone agrees that the government has a right to frame foreign policy. “But it should make these changes in full public view with a full public explanation. The paper-shuffling, obfuscating and insinuating have to stop”. (The Citizen, Dec. 20, 2010)

Kairos: Bev Oda tied up in “nots”

Just before Christmas some things in the Kairos saga became clearer. CIDA President ...

Continue Reading →

Categories: Blog

Tags: , , , , ,

Not Speaking Truth to Power: Another Side of the Oda Affair

March 22, 2011

The Oda affair has dominated the attention of Parliament and the media in recent weeks. The mysterious insertion of the word “not” in a document and the contempt charge against CIDA Minister Bev Oda have been the focus of considerable media interest. The McLeod Group weighed in on this matter in a letter to Speaker Milliken. (That letter can be found on this website.)  Experts, such as David Dacherty of Sir Wilfrid Laurier University and Ned Franks of ...

Continue Reading →

Categories: Blog

Tags: , , ,