Posted November 26

Conservatives set to grill government on Crocus

Tuesday, November 28 in Question Period


It might be interesting to see what kind of questions the PC's come up with this coming Tuesday for the government. While anyone who's been studying the Crocus file knows that there are a fair number of individuals who would have very damaging information to offer about the government's role in propping up Crocus, the problem has been getting these individuals to come forward.
Specifically, there are civil servants who worked within the Department of Finance who were raising very serious questions about Crocus's management and liquidity problems as far back as 2001. Here, in part,  is what the Auditor General had to say in his damning report on Crocus, that was released in May 2005: "Of note is that in January, 2002, an official from the Department of Finance suggested that CIF's continuing requests for legislative amendments may be a sign of management issues and that an independent review of CIF's operations may be in order."
In the next paragraph, the AG wrote: "In January 2001 a senior account manager within IDEM (Industry, Economic Development and Mines), with a background in accounting but not directly responsible for the CIF file, reviewed information provided by the Fund. The manager observed that unless CIF divested sufficient investments to fund redemptions, they would run into liquidity problems as early as 2002/03."
A few paragraphs later, the AG wrote that: 'there were sufficient "red flags" to justify a detailed review in the latter part of 2002.'
To listen to Doer's new pit bull on Crocus, Finance Minister Greg Selinger, you would think that what the AG was writing about were mere trifles - you know, technical problems that were of no real concern. By the way, Selinger is bound to keep repeating his well-worn line that the government has dealt with all the recommendations made in the AG's report. As George Castanza said: "It's not a lie if you believe it."
Look, Doer and Kostyra were working hand in hand with Sherman Kreiner to shield Crocus from any "reviews" or investigations by officials from Finance and IDEM. Why do you think Doer is stonewalling so determinedly to keep anyone from prying into the government's role in propping up Crocus?
The problem has been, and will likely remain, that no officials in either Finance or IDEM are interesting in ending their careers by coming forward to reveal what they knew about the NDP government's complicity in protecting Crocus from the scrutiny of officials who were becoming increasingly concerned about Crocus's problems.
Thus, are we likely to hear anything new from the PC's on Tuesday? Not unless they've got some civil servants enrolled in a witness protection program.

Appeal Court ends possibility of MSC hearings looking into Crocus

Recently we also learned that there is no chance that the Manitoba Securities Commission will be able to hold its much-delayed hearings looking into the collapse of  Crocus. These hearings have been postponed time and again, as lawyers for Crocus officers and directors argued that the MSC is in a conflict of interest, since the MSC itself is a defendant in our class-action lawsuit. The Court of Appeal, unsurprisingly, agreed with that argument. At the same time the Court also urged that the class-action lawsuit be moved forward as quickly as possible.
Our lawyers will be in court later this week - for the first time in months, as the momentum for the lawsuit starts to swing back in our favour.
While many Crocus shareholders have all but forgotten about the lawsuit, it's still very much alive. We know that we've got a great case and that the chances of being certified are extremely good, but the lawyers for the defendants will, no doubt, continue to put up every technical obstacle they can think of, in an effort to frustrate the hopes of Crocus shareholders to recoup some of our huge losses.
Meanwhile, officials within the NDP government can only hope that the timetable for moving the certification process forward is pushed back yet again, in an effort to keep Crocus out of the news as much as possible.
Luckily for the government, the media in this province are either  bored by the Crocus scandal or are very afraid of poking too deeply into it for fear of treading on some very powerful toes.

Posted November 15

Crocus shareholders step up pressure on MLA's

As the leg reconvened today, and as an election call grows closer, the Crocus scandal promises to emerge as a festering sore in the NDP government's side.
Sure, as a story it's fallen off the radar screen...for the time being, but that's to be expected. Crocus shareholders are still fulminating over this government's abject disregard for their concerns. Increasingly shareholders are letting government representatives know how angry they are.
Many shareholders have been copying me the letters and e-mails that they've been sending to their MLA's and to our saintly Premier Doer. Here is an excerpt from one that just about sums up how uninformed a good many NDP caucus members are when it comes to Crocus:
"I just wanted to let you know I just this minute got off the phone after speaking to my MLA Chris Aglugub.  I initiated the call to him to discuss the Crocus fiasco and how this has affected us.  After I introduced myself and told him why I was calling I launched into a brief summary of our experience and frustration with the entire Crocus scandal.  I spoke to him for close to an hour, and honestly feel this man knows little about the Crocus scandal other than the political pap he has been fed by his party the NDP.  When I told him how frustrated we are in not being able to even make a decision in what to do with what little money we have left in the fund after it was frozen - he asked why didn't I just take it out????? This from an NDP MLA - he didn't know we do not have access to our money - he also thought we as in the Crocus Members decided OURSELVES against the Growthworks proposal. He also didn't seem to be aware the Crocus members are paying for all the charges associated with the "investigations".   I was absolutely flabbergasted with his responses.  This man had absolutely no clue and admitted it to me.  He said he was going to bring it up to Greg Selinger at the next caucus meeting next week - a lot of good that will do.  He also told me that there were other MLA's who were also not "aware" of these thing,  as he was.  I suggested he educate himself on the Crocus fund scandal as well as the others.  There has been so much spin on this issue it appears the MLA's themselves don't know much - even though it has been all over the news- go figure!!  It appears that this issue has been compartmentalized and left at the feet at the minister responsible.   That is the feeling that I got speaking to him - that's his job not mine.  I politely suggested that if he was representing us he should be much more aware of the Crocus fiasco and how it affects the people he represents.  This pot has been left sitting in the sun for too long and it is has now become a stinking, moldy mess. I asked him to be courageous enough to stand up and take a stand for the Crocus holders - at least let us decide what to do with the money we have left and call for a full public inquiry."


Hey Gary, Chris Aglugub sounds as if he would have made a perfect appointment to the Crocus board - you know, completely out of his element, knows nothing about what's going on, but a solid NDP hack nonetheless. He could have joined the rest of your pals, like Hilliard, Olfert and the other dufuses who dithered while Sherman Kreiner kept running to your fixer Kostyra begging for just a little more time so that he could figure a way out of this mess. Oops, that little more time (from the moment your civil servants in Finance were waving all those "red flags") cost the shareholders another $60 million.
Suggestion to NDP spinmeisters: Take your caucus members aside and give them a little  primer on Crocus. Remember the message: "We never, ever had anything to do with the Crocus Fund and all those NDP hacks on the Crocus board who had a direct pipeline to Gary Doer never once told him that Crocus was about to do a Titanic."
Better yet, refer all constituents' e-mails and letters to master obfuscator Greg Selinger. Who better to pull off the Pinochio act than your London School of Economics wizard? Look for the NDP to trot out Selinger to handle the Crocus file entirely on his own as the election draws nearer. Selinger lies so deftly and completely about the warnings being given to the government that Crocus was in serious trouble back as far as 2001 that he's setting himself up as Doer's indispensible propogandaist. While Doer simply avoids answering any questions about Crocus, Selinger stares reporters in the face and just outright lies about what all those "red flags" were about. He's Doer's Haldeman. (Reference to Richard Nixon's pit bull during the Watergate affair.)

Plans being developed to hold shareholders' meeting in Brandon in January

One of the more frustrating aspects of the Crocus mess has been the difficulty shareholders who live outside  Winnipeg have had attending meetings that the Crocus Investors Association has held.
We know that somewhere in the order of 30-40% of Crocus shareholders live outside Winnipeg. Many of them were duped by credit unions, which have remained understandably silent about the major role they played flogging Crocus crap for years.
In an attempt to allow these shareholders to have their voices heard, we are going to be holding a meeting in Brandon sometime in January. I have already heard from several Brandon shareholders who are helping to organize the meeting. If there is anyone out there who would like to help out in any way possible, please e-mail crocusowners@hotmail.com.
Brandon is always a political hotbed, and it is only recently that both provincial ridings there have been held by the NDP. (One of the ridings is traditionally PC.) It's about time that we drew attention to the NDP's betrayal of many of its longtime supporters in areas such as Brandon. In the coming months, we plan on holding meetings in many of the key "swing seats" to put the heat on the ridings where the NDP is most vulnerable.
Remember, if only 3,000 voters had voted differently last election, we would have a different government in power in Manitoba today. Don't think for a moment that the NDP braintrust isn't worried sick about the prospect of thousands of Crocus shareholders switching their votes next election from the NDP to another party, or simply deciding not to vote.
We are going to continue to organize and lobby. Even if the officers and directors of Crocus are able to dodge every bullet for some time to come, as they have until now, Crocus shareholders will be looking to vent their anger at one group that was very much responsible for the Crocus disaster, and that can't escape so tidily: Our NDP government.
There's still time for Doer to get out from under this mess and maybe avoid a major debacle at the polls at the hands of Crocus shareholders. His lawyer, Bill Olson, knows how.



Posted November 4

Manitoba Federation of Labour president attacks Crocus shareholders


In a speech given today at the M.F.L. convention, President Darlene Dziewitt took square aim at Crocus shareholders who have dared to launch a class-action lawsuit that named many M.F.L. apparatchiks as defendants.
Here is what Darlene had to say: "No one else seems to give a damn about the shareholders.. not those who have launched the class action lawsuit (most of whom, in my observation, seem only interested in getting their "cut").
Gee, Darlene, I guess it's only the saintly M.F.L. and the saintly NDP government that ever cared about the shareholders. Forgive me for having the nerve not to agree that the only ones who stood between us and Crocus falling apart were individuals like you and St. Gary Doer. Oops, you didn't quite protect us Darlene, did you?
As for the cut that we're wanting, in case you need it explained to you Darlene, every Crocus shareholder will be a party to the class-action lawsuit, including many M.F.L. (and NDP members), and will stand to benefit, as a result. If you're so virtuous, Darlene, why don't you invite your cohorts in the M.F.L. who are also Crocus shareholders to publicly opt out of any eventual award to which they might be entitled as a result of the lawsuit? Or, do you think they might want their "cut", too?
Darlene, if I were you, I wouldn't want to be lashing out at Crocus shareholders. Gary might want to take you aside and teach you something about not rubbing salt into a wound.

Posted November 1

McFadyen tells Crocus rally that PC's will compensate Crocus shareholders if government found to be partly responsible for Crocus problems

At a bitterly cold rally held today on the steps of the Manitoba legislature, Crocus shareholders heard from representatives of all three political parties.
The only real news to come out of the rally was that the Conservatives have pledged to put up real money in compensation to Crocus shareholders if a public inquiry were to find that the provincial government was partly responsible for what went wrong with Crocus.
McFadyen's promise went further than any party has gone before in terms of committing to providing dollars to Crocus shareholders. Previously the most that either of the two oppositions parties would commit to was calling a public inquiry.
The fact that the main opposition party has now aligned itself so clearly with Crocus shareholders is a clear indication that the pressure that we, as shareholders, have begun to put upon the political parties, is beginning to pay off. Indeed, McFadyen's remarks clearly eclipsed Liberal leaderJon Gerrard's vow to call a public inquiry that would look at all aspects of the Crocus scandal. Gerrard warned that the PC's would limit the scope of an inquiry to cover only the years 1999 to the present, whereas it should really be prepared to look at the years in which the PC's were in power, as well. (Good point, Jon, but unfortunately for you, McFadyen's willingness to commit to financial compensation is what we wanted to hear.)
   

CJOB loses interest in Crocus shareholders' fight


There was an interesting sidebar to today's rally that deserves mention. Radio station CJOB, which, until now, has done a good job covering the Crocus story, has apparently decided that the Crocus scandal is old news and not worthy of much coverage any more.
Reporter Jeff Kiel's report on the rally focused only on what Manitoba Finance Minister Greg Selinger had to say in a scrum inside the legislature, following the rally. There was no mention of what McFadyen or anyone who actually spoke at the rally had to say.
This morning Kiel had phoned me to say that Richard Cloutier wanted to get a Crocus shareholder on the air to talk about the rally, but he didn't want to talk to me. Since I didn't have the phone number of any Crocus shareholder with me, Cloutier never bothered to even mention the rally during his entire show and Kiel's reporting was strangely brief and largely irrelevant to the real news that was generated.

There are two deductions that I can make from CJOB's shift in its coverage of the story:
1. Advertising for the rally was confined to the Free Press and the Sun. I had warned that CJOB would not be happy to be left out of the advertising. Unfortunately, for those of you not in the news business, that's often how the game is played.
2. Richard Cloutier has decided that the Crocus story is "old news", no longer of much interest to his listeners. Of course, that's music to the ears of the NDP spin-meisters who have been trying to have this story buried ever since it broke.
Look, as most of the media know, a financial story is the toughest kind of story to cover. It's complex, often leads up blind alleys, and doesn't have the kind of mass appeal of a Belinda Stronach story.
When news reporters say to me: "Give us something new," they're asking me to do their job for them. We know that the Crocus story is especially tough. The individuals who know what really happened at Crocus aren't talking...yet. For the most part we know who they are, but we haven't been able to persuade anyone to become a "deep throat".
There are some solid reporters in this town - Richard Cloutier included. But if the Crocus scandal has to compete for time and space with other, sexier news stories, or if it is reduced to nothing more than an entertainment story, it's not going anywhere.
It is for that reason that the shareholders are going to have to wage this fight at the grass-roots level. We're going to be contacting every last shareholder that we can find and try to inform them of the importance of political action.
As I said at the rally, 34,000 shareholders, their families and friends combined, can form a formidable political force. We will begin to hold meetings in rural areas, we will continue to contact people through e-mail and letters and, if the media say: "That's boring", we'll just have to do it on our own.
The really big financial scandals of the past few years, such as Enron, Worldcom, Portus, Hollinger, and others of that sort, were very tough to cover. Crocus isn't an easy story to cover either. Too bad the media hold their readers, listeners, and viewers in such low esteem that they give up on trying to do real investigative reporting when they come up headlong against a stubborn government, such as our NDP government, that is determined to hide the truth. What we need are more Jon Singletons and fewer reporters who get "bored" in this town.