Over the weekend a leaked November 2000 Cabinet memo raised questions about when the NDP govermment first knew the Crocus Investment Fund was in serious trouble and had turned into a Ponzi scheme. We got right into it and looked at angles the mainstream media couldn't or wouldn't talk about.
Monday: Liberal leader Dr. Jon Gerrard, who got the brown envelope with the leak, joined the show and explained the origin of the briefing note and the meaning of the text. He had questions whether former Auditor Jon Singleton had seen it when he issued his report, because at no point did the report say anything about Cabinet being notified about Crocus troubles back in 2000. In fact Singleton told the Free Press he never saw it in 2005 when he did his review.
This leaked document also raised a new questions about the concealed loan from the Solidarite Fond of Quebec in 2002, which was the Auditor cited as having been falsely characterized in the prospectus and to shareholders as an investment but which actually was used as a bookeeping device to keep the Fund operating legally. How did the Finance Minister and Cabinet not recognize it for what it was? And with the House not in session, how could the opposition get answers?
Gerrard fielded criticism that it was partly his own fault the House was not sitting, as an all-party agreement had set the dates. He said that while the Liberals had agreed to a set end-of-session date, he had presumed that the NDP call the House into session earlier as a result, and felt duped by the NDP.
The Winnipeg Free Press went on the offensive, criticising CTV and Global for showing court-approved footage of the murder of Edwin Yue as not being in the public interest, while the Freep also quoted a CBC honcho in support. Of course we asked the question, why shouldn't the public be able to evaluate the accused claims of self-defence ? And since the Free Press insisted that the divorce file of Mayor Katz should be opened to their scrutiny, why did that instance qualify as the public interest, expecially since not one word has been reported about the contents of the divorce file since?
Frank the Italian Barber looked at the NHL trade scene, and we previewed the jersey retirement ceremony slated on Tuesday for Edmonton Oiler great Mark Messier. A call from Shane Madison became a Mazel Tov session as the Mecca announced his engagement; the sound listeners heard was hearts breaking in every nightclub across River City.
Tuesday: Adrienne Batra of the CTF helped walk us through the meaning of the leaked Crocus briefing note and the implications for the government and the more she explained, the worse it got.
The briefing note outlined a number of possible legislative changes Crocus execs were asking for; and although Finance Minister Greg Selinger said in a rare Saturday news conference that the government did nothing at the time, the fact is they made changes shortly thereafter and also allowed Crocus to oversell to be able to use the cash - illegally- to pay off redemptions. So it was not only the date of the memo which Batra found disturbing, but the message that was brought to Cabinet. Yet the Attorney-General turned a blind eye to the Crcous Fund operating a Ponzi scheme and did not report it to the Manitoba Securities Commission, who also ignored other complaints at the time.
And despite the late-afternoon claim that the new Auditor had found this 'smoking gun' memo in the files Singleton had reviewed, that didn't mean anyone would believe it was in the files when the review had been conducted.
In sports callers were incenced at the trade of Ryan Smyth by the Oilers to the Islanders, and the fact the trade took the thunder away from this evening's Messier affair.
Wednesday: Kelly Dehn of CTV told us all about the breaking news. A truckhad been driven up the stairs of the Worker's Compensation Board on Broadway and police had evacuated parts of downtown because of fear the truck was rigged. WCB has an incident every decade or so but this one was pretty unusual, was when the suspect was taken into custody the truck was full of clothes and what appeared to be medication.
Turning back to the Crocus file, we reminded listeners that the new Auditor, Carol Bellringer, had herself been a Crocus Board membera nd as such, could not be seen as an impartial source for any explantion about the file and what was in it and when. Are there more documents now found in the file which Singleton had not seen? What other cabinet documents from before 2002 about Crocus were there? You coud tell this leak had stirred things up, because on CJOB this morning the first calls were pro-NDP flaks, then a few more callers like former City Councillor Peter Kaufmann asked serious questiosn about the judgement of some of the officials involved, and still others said, "public inquiry".
Lastly we broke more news on astpory we've been following.
Contract negotiations between Unicity Taxi and the Winnipeg Airport Authority had broken down, when the WAA tried to convince the cabbies to pay $400,000 a year for service rights but said it could be recouped if Unicity applied to the Taxicab Board for an added meter fee of $2.00, $1.75 of that to be paid to WAA.
In other words, the cabbies take the heat from the traveling public and WAA pockets 7/8ths of the increase.
Fat chance, said Unicity.
The proposed Avion shuttle was never mentioned in negotiations, but we learned that the airport's wholly-owned for-profit subsidiary had tried to get the Public Utilities Board to bypass a public hearing as requested by City Hall and got the thumbs down, and were told by PUB the hearing would cost them $50,000.
Thursday: We quickly recapped the Crocus file and WCB aftermath, as well as breaking news about a massive property portfolio sale in the city, as Sun-X sold 46 warehouse buildings and 35 acres of undeveloped land to a BC consortium led by Bentall Capital.
The rest of the show was a special edition about pop and rock music and collectables with Rockin Richard, with resident musicologist Dee Hooker joining us to talk about old local mainstay bands like Orphan and The Pumps. March 1st was the anniversary of Buddy Holly's first appearance in England in 1958, which was a key moment in the history of the development of many UK bands and the future English Invasion.
Friday: Premier Doer returned from Washington DC and made a statement about the smoking gun memo that it was not significant and that the Singleton report had dealt with the gist of it in relation to the liquidity issues Crocus faced. But a letter to the Editor of the Free Press showed how far confidence had sunk in the government's version of events. We explained to the audience that Crocus was not only about the shareholders, or those who were duped into iunvesting when the Fund was floundering and the public wasn't told.
WCB and TRAF had invested millions into Crocus schemes and this was done by governemnt appointees, who sat on each other's boards. Tom Ulrich had complained about TRAF's gambling retired teacher's pension money with Crocus and was rewarded with being fired and a lawsuit.; WCB's Pat Jacobsen voiced similar concerns and was run out on a rail.
The pattern of government appointees shutting up anyone who dared to point out what Cabinet itself already knew - that Crocus was more risky than people were being told - were punished and intimidated.
Another Winnipeg resident in the North End installed cameras to catch car thieves and vandals, and his efforts got attention across MSM. He had suffered $33,000 in losses and damage since moving in and was fed up.
Tim Bigelow of Kick-FM joined us in sports to talk about the upcoming MJHL playoffs which are being covered live on our station. Then we previewed UFC 68 and the chances for Canadian Jason McDonald and unretired-and-moving-up-to-heavyweight Randy Couture to emerge victorious.
Lastly we wondered, if Red Rover has been banned from schools because it is somehow hurtful, then why isn't dodgeball banned as well?
