Cabinet Minister Bev Oda under pressure (Canada)

[General Trelane (Retired)]

Just over a year ago, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) cut off federal funding to the church-based aid organization called Kairos Canada. That made headlines then especially when the government initially admitted to cutting the funding because of Kairos' political views (they dared criticize Israel) but later backtracked and stated that funding was cut because Kairos' programs no longer met CIDA priorities. Now it's coming back to bite Bev Oda (Minister for International Cooperation and the minister to whom CIDA reports) in the ass. Here's a sample news report:

Speaker rebukes Bev Oda over document in Kairos case
CAMPBELL CLARK
OTTAWA— From Friday's Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011 10:09PM EST
Last updated Friday, Feb. 11, 2011 10:47AM EST

The Speaker of the House of Commons has delivered a stinging rebuke to International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda over what he called a “very troubling” case that made senior civil servants appear to have signed a doctored document.

But despite the sharp words, Speaker Peter Milliken said a procedural technicality prevented him from ruling on whether Ms. Oda misled the Commons and breached its rules.

The case concerns the Conservative government’s controversial 2009 decision to cut off church-backed aid group Kairos from federal aid funding. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney initially told an Israeli audience that Kairos was cut off because the government didn’t like its views on Israel, but Ms. Oda and other Tories insisted it was a routine decision.

Aid groups and opponents charged that the Conservatives have decided to cut off aid to groups whose political views differ from theirs – but the Tories said bureaucrats at the Canadian International Development Agency concluded Kairos no longer matched their priorities.

But new documents that emerged last December show that CIDA’s top officials signed a memorandum recommending new funding for Kairos before someone – the government won’t say who – inserted the word “not,” overruling the recommendation.

“The full body of material gives rise to very troubling questions. Any reasonable person confronted with what appears to have transpired would necessarily be extremely concerned, if not shocked, and might well begin to doubt the integrity of certain decision-making processes,” Mr. Milliken said in his decision on a Liberal MP’s complaint.

“In particular, the senior CIDA officials concerned must be deeply disturbed by the doctored document they have been made to appear to have signed.”

Mr. Milliken said he couldn’t rule on the case because the matter is still officially before a parliamentary committee, not the full Commons. The Liberal MP who made the complaint, John McKay, said he’ll talk to other MPs on the committee to see if they will press the matter, and ask for Ms. Oda to be cited for contempt.

The document that cut off Kairos’s funding includes a recommendation for Ms. Oda “that you sign below to indicate that you not approve a contribution of $7,098,758 over four years for the above program.” But the word “not” was inserted in handwriting, and CIDA president Margaret Biggs testified that it wasn’t there when she signed it, just three days before Kairos was told its application had been rejected.

Ms. Oda’s parliamentary secretary, Jim Abbott, apologized for telling the Commons that CIDA analyzed Kairos funding request and found it didn’t meet their priorities. He said he did not know that was untrue when he said it.

But Ms. Oda has yet to explain what happened, and her office declined to comment on Thursday.

Ms. Oda also signed the document, but it’s not clear if the word “not” was in it at the time – in other words, whether she approved or rejected the Kairos grant. Mr. McKay has suggested that she may have approved the grant, but was overruled by the Prime Minister’s Office.

But when she testified before the Commons foreign affairs committee on Dec. 13, Ms. Oda did not answer questions about who altered the document, arguing it doesn’t matter.

“It’s like we’re on CSI or an investigative forensic thing – who’s put the ‘not’ in. I’d like to know what your issue is,” she said then. “What is your issue?”

No, Minisiter Oda, we're not on CSI. It's actually worse than that; you're in politics. Lesser things have ended better careers in politics.

Amusingly, Kairos is now selling a tee-shirt with the slogan, "Kairos is ^not going away."

[Phantasee]

Didn't she just admit that she changed it herself?

Edit: Yes she did:

OTTAWA—International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda faces a fight for her political life as opposition MPs get set to call for her resignation in the wake of her admission that she ordered a government document to be doctored.

Oda is certain to face tough questions and likely calls for her to step down – in question period Tuesday after her bombshell revelation Monday that she had ordered a document changed to deny funding to the church-based group Kairos.

Liberal MP Bob Rae set the stage for the resignation call Tuesday morning, declaring that Oda had lost his party’s support.

“Ms. Oda doesn’t have my confidence in terms of our ability to believe what she has to say,” Rae told a news conference.

Her decision to doctor a government document and then mislead opposition MPs about it speaks to the “morality” of the Conservative government, Rae said.

“It’s not a process issue. It’s an issue about the character of this government . . . it’s about a government which has great difficulty telling the truth, it’s about a government which conceals information and hides facts and it’s about a government which then proceeds to make up stories and spin and twist when they get caught,” Rae said.

Oda revealed Monday that she was behind the mysterious “not” that was handwritten on a government document that ended funding for Kairos.

“The funding decision was mine. The ‘not’ was inserted at my direction,” Oda said in a surprise statement in the Commons Monday.

That was a direct contradiction of what she told a Commons committee in December when she claimed not to know who had altered the department document.

Yet the ‘not’ was inserted after two senior officials at the Canadian International Development Agency had already signed the document, making it appear like they endorsed the decision to deny Kairos any funding.

In fact, CIDA had recommended that Kairos get funding worth about $7 million over four years.

If Oda disagreed with the advice from the bureaucracy, she should have sent back the recommendation, rather than making a sneaky attempt to reverse the funding, Rae said.

“It’s an absolutely unacceptable, absurd way to run a government. It’s just wrong,” Rae said.

It’s still not known who was responsible for penning the word ‘not’ on the form though Rae charged that it was done with the knowledge – perhaps the insistence – of the Prime Minister’s office.

“Minister Oda could not have made this decision by herself. She could not have done what she did without instructions from the Prime Minister’s Office and for all we know, from the Prime Minister himself,” he said.

Rae downplayed questions whether Oda may have broken the law, saying it’s more a question for Parliament to decide whether she knowingly misled MPs.

I'm going to assume she steps down some time soon. Harper probably doesn't want this holding him down this close to an election.

[General Trelane (Retired)]

Yeah, her admission has been making the headlines last night and this morning. I find her admission to be deliberately elusive--she admits that the "not" was added at her direction. WTF? She signed the document too. Did she have the "not" added after she signed it? Or before? If before, then why not simply add the "not" herself rather than direct someone else to do it?

But Rae raises an interesting point--did she direct this on orders from higher up? It would explain why they haven't (yet) thrown her under the bus, but I don't see her lasting much longer in any case (either she resigns of her own volition, or she gets thrown aside as the convenient scapegoat to preserve face for Harper).

I'll make some popcorn before watching the news tonight.