Unapologetic grifter Sherman Kreiner left a legacy of lies and distrust

The spin-doctors were out in force trying to control the narrative after the demise on July 1st of Sherman Kreiner, a Philadelphia lawyer who came to Manitoba and excelled at bellying up to the trough for decades as a model for the white wine socialists of his era. 

It is natural that former colleagues of Kreiner, most recently Managing Director of the University of Winnipeg Renewal Corporation, would stoke  his memory with accolades for being "a doggedly committed advocate for social and economic justice." 

But if there's one thing Kreiner avoided in his time in Winnipeg, it was being on the receiving end of justice or a public inquiry for his deception as CEO in the mismanagement of the Crocus Fund, where he used investments from duped investors to underwrite absolutely stupid money-losing enterprises that advanced his socialist and glory-seeking agenda. 

Under the vision of Mr. "Multiple Bottom Lines", Crocus Fund investors were going to save democracy from capitalism, and pay him handsomely to manage it. 

A Labour-sponsored venture capital fund, it was supposed to grow small to mid-sized Manitoba businesses. What actually grew, was the influence and wallets of Kreiner and his team.

*  In March of 2007 we dedicated a special week to the contents of a leaked briefing memo that had Premier Gary Doer scrambling off a plane from Washington to try to save his ass before the provincial election. The briefing note, signed by then Finance Minister Greg Selinger in 2000, was conveniently never provided to the provincial auditor for his report - and the RCMP could not confirm thay had gotten it for their investigation either. 

In an on-air interview on 92.9 KICK-FM that week Liberal MLA Kevin Lamoreaux told our audience that he had no doubt the NDP was hiding even more information, and that Selinger had lied to the House when confronted with questions about Crocus in the past. The NDP outvoted a motion for Legislative Committee evidence to be sworn and moved that the Opposition Leaders apologize to Selinger. 

The Cabinet memo proves that back in 2000, the government knew that new investors' money was actually going to be used to pay out those investors who in essence, bailed before 34,000 people lost millions. Questionable investments touted by Kreiner included pouring endless sums into entertainment industry failures like Westsun ($21 million) all the way down to Blye Brothers ($1 million, zero films produced). 

Exhorbitant expenses were being rung up before an illegal loan from the Solidarity Fond in Quebec in 2002 was described as an "investment" and then used to cook the Crocus books and give it the illusion of stability and liquidity.  

*  The big dollars he had the Crocus Fund throw at media outlets made him feel he was above scrutiny as the ponzi scheme he captained was slowly decending into a death spiral. Shortly after the injection of Quebec capital, a critical letter from a shareholder circulated around the Legislature and media. 

We reported in January 2008 that when CBC reporter Krista Erickson asked Crocus about the reasons for the deal with the Fond , Kreiner wrote back , “As for the inference to liquidity raised by .... it is simply false.” 

However documents put into court in a shareholder lawsuit included the letter to the Fond requesting the money. The first reason Kreiner listed was “We presently face a short term liquidity challenge”. 

So he had no problem lying to CBC, especially when the letter had clearly told the truth- that regular investors got no guaranteed rate of return, so the Quebec money was not an "investment" but a high-cost short term loan. 

He also had no problem breaking the law, to conceal that Crocus was in deep trouble.

In that same correspondence begging for the bail-out, Kreiner vowed to repay the $10 million plus 7 % interest after 18 months, "even if the consequences of the redemption would place us offside our regulatory requirements regarding Reserve Funds" - in other words even if the Crocus Fund broke the law to do so.

(In fact, Crocus eventually committed to pay 10% interest, not 7%, to get the "investment".)

* Even the protective shield of the Crocus-friendly Winnipeg Free Press began to buckle, as editor Nick Hirst acted as a nervous canary in the coalmine after leaking the letter from the disgrunteled investor to his pal Shermy.  

Saying he had already found it "difficult to keep such letters out of the newspaper”, Hirst warned Kreiner “This letter become insidious if followed by others. 
It suggests there really is something wrong ... (This is) an example of one of the many letters we are receiving about your fund.” It was also an example of the many letters Hirst did not publish to protect his friend from scrutiny. 

* So friendly, in fact, that a Fund sponsor upstaged the 2005 hearing at which the Securities Commission had asked the court to appoint a receiver to manage Crocus's affairs.

The Manitoba Federation of Labour brought forward a group of "volunteers" suggesting that they were in a better position to run Crocus than a professional receiver. One was Nicholas Hirst, months after leaving the newspaper to "write tv scripts".

For a timeline of the Crocus collapse click here

* Here's how the Flin Flon Reminder described the Auditor's report into Kreiner's term heading up Crocus:

"Apparently no one was minding the store, such the C.E.O. Sherman Kreiner who Singleton said 
- had no investment management background, 
- did nothing about management problems, and 
- did not properly inform the Directors. 

Kreiner was forced out in early December, shortly before Crocus stopped trading and devalued by $46 million. 

He remains hostile to the Auditor-General's report even though he can't explain how a $10 million loan from Quebec was reported as an asset. 

Apparently Kreiner's biggest failure was his inability to control the wild spending of his Chief Investment Officer James Umlah, who among other things spent $1.1 million on expenses.

* Shortly after the NDP helped the University of Winnipeg with a little pension shortfall, Kreiner was hired there in what was called "a far cry from his glory days with Crocus when he paraded around town as a Prince of the City, thuggishly threatening and intimidating anyone who dared challenge his command of the Crocus Fund and its many socialist offshoots." 

His benefactor, former U of W president Lloyd Axworthy, remembers the late Kreiner for "turning the university’s food services from an unpopular, greasy canteen to a social enterprise focused on organic and fresh food". Here is how it was described at the time: 

"The architects of this food services delivery model are two Winnipeg based organizations, The University of Winnipeg Community Renewal Corporation (UWCRC) and SEED Winnipeg." 

What Axworthy doesn't want you to remember, is that when the press release quoted Kreiner and SEED's Executive Director Cindy Coker, the University was careful not to reveal the two were actually married, and had been for a long time.  

* Axworthy also doesn't want anyone remembering how under Kreiner's direction, the U of W lied to conceal their manifest destiny vision of expanding the University footprint to adjacent streets in the west end. 

According to the Social Justice Committee of  Blessed Kateri Tekawitha Aboriginal Catholic Parish " Jennifer Rattray said, “The University of Winnipeg would never buy the buildings on Langside or Young and displace the people. It would be terrible PR.” 

"We were told there were never any discussions about buying these buildings or using them for students or kicking people out. Jennifer Rattray was very adamant that we were just stirring up the residents for nothing."  

But the day after the meeting "(we found) a document quoting a July 5^th meeting of Spence Neighborhood Association representatives, Maggie Friesen, Cyril Keeper, Don Miedema and Kate Sjoberg with Sherman Kriener (sic) spokesperson of the University of Winnipeg, states the specific details of such a take over of MHRC buildings. They "...specifically discussed the displacement issue and recognized that it was one (they) would need to address very carefully." 

(Well, Shermy was consistent, he'd lie to anyone in the west end, whether it was a CBC reporter or the neighborhood church).


* The day after the NDP was re-elected under Selinger in 2011, 8 of the 10 Crocus directors who had nominally been responsible for Kreiner made a whitewash deal with the highly compromised Manitoba Securities Commission to save their skin. The Order allowed them to walk away without being held accountable or expressing any remorse for allowing inflated shares in the labour fund to be sold without the required checks and balances being followed by the Board, that would have protected trusting Manitobans from being fleeced. 

The Order included dirty details of stalled Valuation approvals and details of backroom infighting between parties unnamed in the documentation - but who were Kreiner and new executives Chief Operating Officer Laurie Goldberg and Chief Investment Officer John Pelton, who blew the whistle to authorities when they found the Fund was collapsing. 

* Axworthy told the Free Press that Kreiner was working on a book  "about social enterprises, and how to get more conscious businesses into the market." 

"I’m hoping that book comes to publication, because the parts he read out to me were just brilliant. Let’s just say: we’re still going to hear from Sherman Kreiner."

If and when you do, read this brief retrospective again and compare Kreiner's actual record in the community from the fiction he was no doubt compiling to cover himself in glory.  

When Winnipeg loses experienced journalists, it loses institutional memory. There are fewer reporters in the city than EVER. The deep researched coverage we gave to the Crocus Fund scandal on KICK-FM helped establish citizen journalism in this town.

The public deserves more than the spin put out there about divisive characters like Sherman Kreiner. 

In the next few months I want to make sure that there is added coverage of city hall, the Manitoba election and the federal election too, as well as stories like this. 

Your donation helps me make a difference in the community. 

Go to the home page and check our most recent stories about meth use in this city and some possible solutions, and join the readers who have already helped us get over 10% of our target of 100 donors at $50 each. 

Read more about the donor drive here:

http://tgcts.blogspot.com/2019/06/theres-2-elections-coming-up-so-were.html

Feedback on Occupy Winnipeg, Downtown Biz and safety, poverty, Crocus; plus FLM nominations open

In lieu of a Podcast today, we are going to take some extra time to prepare a special Tuesday episode marking the one year anniversary of the betrayal of radio listeners (and their own Cre-Comm students) by the anti-citizen journalism, anti-free speech bosses at Red River College.

One of the reasons the media oligarchy, as Scott Price of CKUW describes it, had to find a way to silence the community platform offered to TGCTS by CKIC station manager Rick Baverstock, was our mandate to circulate other sources of opinion and information and to reflect the comments by listeners and readers in our community about the issues and how they are reported on by the mainstream media.

Can you imagine if last November, heading into a provincial election, the public had learned on drive-time campus radio that the largest shelter in Manitoba was rife with mould and needed $1/2 million in repairs, while the Selinger priority was to devote over $30 million to polar bear projects and $40 million for a museum about "human rights" ?

Which media outlet do you think would have asked Greg Selinger why his government underfunded Osborne House and endangered its clients health? Because TGCTS would have.

Then again, we derived not a dime from his government.

The execution of TGCTS on radio wasn't about silencing us in the studio - it was about silencing ALL of you who were being given a voice at a time of day when people would actually be able to listen to their radio, and would want to participate in a professional format that engaged the audience to take action and challenge elected officials for funding the pet projects of millionaires to the hilt while they ignored the daily needs of vulnerable human beings in our community.

We are sure the brown tower bullies at RRC and their loyal "partners" in mainstream radio will want to listen tomorrow to the story told by Barb Judt of Osborne House about domestic violence in this community and the demand for the services her agency provides.

After all, it is the story that they themselves silenced one year ago at Kick-FM because they cared more about their corporate agendas then they did about homeless women and children in Winnipeg and the precarious financial situation of the shelter.

In the meantime, here is a sampling of recent public affairs coverage in the alternative media and feedback we get via email and social media from believers in You Have the Power.

**********
Firstly a message posted on our Facebook group from Kristaps:

"Whether you are for, against, curious, or have no idea about the Occupied movement in this city, please come down and talk to us! We are a diverse group of people of various races, religions, educations, careers and views on the the movement. You are always welcome to come sit around the fire and share your opinions, and hear ours. If any of you have been thinking of joining the movement do not procrastinate. Yes the weather is getting cold, but we are preparing for the winter. I am a full time student at U of W, and I hold down a part-time job while still camping out every night. We have food, extra sleeping bags and a communal tent in case you do not have access to any of the materials to get started. Please come and talk!"

To which a listener responded:

"Thursday's podcast was good. Kenny and yourself have good chemistry and you're at your best with someone acting as a foil.

I was really impressed with the way you have treated those on the facebook group supporting "Occupy Winnipeg". It shows your commitment to community engagement

Personally I have no issues with the occupiers as long as they clean up after themselves and leave the park as they found it. At least they are engaging each other and if they are sincere are willing to openly engage anyone who wants to hike down there.

Perhaps members of our government and city council should go and talk around the firepit as well. They may get more accomplished."

And we heard more from our Facebook group after we spread word that an Exchange District business, Ragpickers Anti-Fashion Emporium, was re-structuring for the future:

Kristen wrote:

"CBC french radio was by today, with their film cameras - and the shop was filled with French speaking Victorian Dressed frolickers, from other continents, on their way to party! We live in our own time zone here...its multi-lingual, multi-cultural, multi-dimensional, and filled with uni-bio-philia!!"

**********

An earlier public event, well and deservedly panned by the alternative media, was the CEO Sleepover PR stunt at 201 Portage by the Downtown Biz.

For those who think we were alone in hammering the hypocrites, check out these two pieces from the College press:

http://uniter.ca/view/6586/

http://uniter.ca/view/6572/

And this blogger had some valid observations:

"A quick Google search on the subject reveals that most of the conversation regarding the CEO Sleepout is of the chest-beating, back-slapping, self-congratulatory variety. Participants in the Human Library have been far more self-critical"

http://writingpartners.wordpress.com/2011/10/31/

and there was also this view:

"As I think about that event now, it’s kind of corny: rich and powerful people pose as those in solidarity with those most desperate among us."

http://www.geezmagazine.org/blogs/entry/day-1-on-four-dollars-of-food-per-day/

***************

A lot of the recent criticisms about the Downtown Biz stem from the unrealistic statements on downtown safety coming from their office and public officials after the Air Canada memo was made public.

My column in the Jewish Post about the controversy

http://www.jewishpostandnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=431%3Atelling-it-like-it-is-about-winnipegs-downtown&catid=34%3Ademo-articles&Itemid=78

garnered the following response:

"I finally just had the chance to read the Jewish post article about downtown and it was fabulous man. Well done. Its completely unbelievable how air Canada is getting blasted and no one is actually talking about the real problem. J"

Plus this view from an eyewitness:

" In my last job, I used to be at work for about 5:30 a.m. Monday thru Friday. I would drive down Ellice and make a right at Garry Street. The first left you can make before Portage Avenue takes you down a small back lane. On Garry and down that back lane was a regular occurring show of sex (orgies included), drug deals and then the individuals who thought they had privacy masturbating in public. If you drove down there and startled one of them, you ran the chance of having someone urinate, throw feces or blow their load onto your vehicle.

I used to park in the underground lot at the TD Center. Because it was heated, individuals used to sneak in on occasion and have sex. There’s nothing like stumbling upon that at the end of the day!"

and we also got the following email from a former resident:

"Good article on the downtown. This is what happens when political correctness takes over."

EDIT: and finally, this quote from a documentarian and activist from Los Angeles; his speech this past summer at CDI College was not deemed worthy of attendance by Winnipeg's CEO's for lack of a ribbon to cut or other similar PR trade-off, I presume.

"every person working in homeless services should spend at least 4 hours (1/2 day) each month on the "front lines". They need to "feel" the real pain of homelessness to better understand people and find solutions to help"

Mark Horvath

*********

Inasmuch as poverty is a frequent issue raised in matters of homelessness and downtown crime, this blog analysis by Brian Gilchrist about how food banks are seeing more 'working poor'

http://bgilchrist.wordpress.com/2011/11/02/not-numbers-to-be-proud-of-a-clear-example-of-the-ndp-failing-the-working-poor/

led to this FB comment:

"I agree with two of his points...

Minimum Wage is part of the problem... Minimum wage went up 5.26% in October, which is over 2% mora than inflation. Minimum wage goes up, businesses that higher unskilled/minimum wage labour, such as those working at grocery stores, have to raise their prices to compensate above and beyond the usual 3% inflation.

Since we are on a variable rate taxation system, and that won't change for the forseeable future, I think the best thing they can do is make the personal tax exemption limit 25% less than minimum wage at full time, which would currently be $15,600, which means low income earners pay tax on just $5,200 per year. Now, I can predict now the socialists in the group will say, WAIT!!! They shouldn't pay tax at all! If they make minimum wage then they should keep all their money.

But, if that was the case, the take-home income for someone earning $30,000 per year would be $21,050, after tax, which is only $250 more than someone on minimum wage who got to keep everything. So everyone, even the lowest earners need to contribute to taxes to keep things fair."

************

One of the news stories we kept the spotlight on for years was the Crocus Fund rip-off. The wrist-slap deal made between the Securities Commission and 8 of the Directors - that ONLY TGCTS looked into the details of - fed public cynicism about what justice means under the NDP:

"The sad thing is the people who are responsible won't get punished."

*******************

Lastly, you may want to occupy a few minutes of your time by taking part in the following process that recognizes true leaders in our community:

"Dear Friends, Family and Colleagues,

As many of you are aware over the past number of years I have been involved in the Future Leaders of Manitoba Council (FLMC). On Thursday, January 26th, 2012, the FLMC will be hosting the Fourth Annual Awards Gala, which honours young Manitoban’s aged 25-39 for their amazing achievements in the areas of Business, Community Service, and The Arts. We are always looking for new talent, and cannot wait to honour Manitoba’s finest once again this year.

If you know someone exceptional, please visit the FLMC website at www.flmc.mb.ca for more information on how to nominate. Each finalist and their nominators will be given 2 tickets to the event, to come and celebrate Manitoba.

Nominations are due on Saturday, December 10th, 2011. All nominators will be entered into a draw to receive 2 tickets to the Winnipeg Jets vs. Anaheim Ducks December 17^th hockey game courtesy of FLMC Media sponsor, HOT 103.

Thank you in advance for taking some time out of your day, to honour your friends, family and colleagues by nominating them for one of the exciting and prestigious Future Leaders of Manitoba Awards.

If you have any questions about nominations please feel free to reach me by email at jfarber@qualico.com."

**************

NEXT PODCAST IS TUESDAY NOVEMBER 8TH

Follow us on Twitter @TGCTS

Inside the Crocus "settlement" - 8 directors lined up to agree starting the day after NDP re-elected

None of the mainstream media outlets took a moment to actually look into the details of the Manitoba Securities Commission decision allowing 8 Crocus Fund Directors to walk away without being held accountable or expressing any remorse for allowing inflated shares in the labour fund to be sold without the required checks and balances being followed by the Board, that would have protected trusting Manitobans from being fleeced.

How did the MSC think that suspending their ability to do anything like it again -- for a year -- is any kind of sanction or protects the public?

We took the time to read it over.

Since not one newsroom seems to have actually named the Directors - can they be called guilty? I think they can because they admitted to breaching the Act by not adhering to the Prospectus - TGCTS will name names:

Charles Curtis, Peter Olfert, Waldron (Wally) Fox-Decent, Lea Baturin, Albert Beal, Diane Beresford, Sylvia Farley and Robert Hilliard.

It is a sickening reminder of how under the NDP white-collar crime that would result in a stint in the penitentary in the US is absolved in Manitobastan by compliant regulators after hearing pleas that 'the lawyers advised us' and 'the accounting firm said it was ok'. (Ever heard of Enron, any of you ?)

The "Reasons for Decision" is ONE WHOLE PARAGRAPH.
http://www.msc.gov.mb.ca/legal_docs/investigation/reasons/crocus.pdf

Wait till you hear excerpts from the Order, which includes:

- the dirty details of stalled Valuation approvals;

- backroom infighting between parties unnamed in the documentation (but who were longtime Crocus CEO Sherman Kreiner and new executives Chief Operating Officer Laurie Goldberg and Chief Investment Officer John Pelton - please note I mis-guessed the CIO in this narrative on this podcast as being Albert Black which will be corrected on the next podcast);

- and the pathetic excuses of the 8 directors subject to the Order whom, although all promoters of the Fund and highly educated professionals, were seemingly out of their depth on how to discharge their responsibilities properly when it came to actually running the Fund as Directors of the Board.

(Two remaining Directors, Ron Waugh and Robert Ziegler, will appear at a hearing at 1 PM on Wednesday, November 2 at the MSC offices.)

http://www.msc.gov.mb.ca/legal_docs/orders/6414_crocus.pdf

Listen to our walk-thru of the details, and in particular the discovery of a glaring irregularity in the documentation. And I mean glaring.

Also on the agenda today:
* The Simkin Centre pulled an Olga Fuga and declared the Annual General Meeting over when the tough questions about the abuse of the elderly and a closed-shop Board nomination process started piling up. This was a shameful way for a Jewish organization to abandon their duty to the community.

* The City of Winnipeg 311 Service, try though it might, cannot cover-up for the bloated bureaucracy, which has taken 6 weeks to figure out who is supposed to remove two discarded toilets ( left there in mid-August) from the lane behind Home Street in the west end.

* Don't forget tomorrow's special episode, focusing on the Air Canada memo fall-out and the relationship between the Downtown Biz and its critics, featuring a special interview with a citizen journalist who pulls no punches in describing the sad state of civic "debate" in Winnipeg and the dismissive attitude of the Biz to the community.

HERE IS THE LINK TO THE THURSDAY PODCAST:
http://tgctspod.podbean.com/2011/10/27/inside-the-crocus-settlement-8-directors-lined-up-to-agree-starting-the-day-after-ndp-re-elected/

email: tgcts1@gmail.com
@tgcts on Twitter

Bizarro Manitoba: Crocus Fund directors pay no penalty; foreign students and polar bears NDP priority over humans in need

When newsrooms report that the punishment for 8 Crocus Fund directors who admitted selling shares far above their worth, is to bar them from doing it again FOR ONE WHOLE YEAR, and the mainstream media fails to identify who those directors are or question the Securities Commission about the post-election timing, this province is in a serious free-fall of accountability and ethics.

When foreign students getting free health care and multi-million dollar shelter for Polar Bears is more important to local philanthropists and the Selinger government than access to doctors for Manitobans and shelter for victims of domestic violence and the homeless, this province is in a serious free-fall of financial and moral judgement.

When a political party that fell under 10% support thinks people will now pay to join up, this province is in a serious free-fall of critical thinking and common sense.

When mainstream media reports on a poll about Mayor Sam Katz based on at best, 450 responses, and more likely only 300, and the pollster is allowed to claim '1.2% accuracy 95% of the time' without challenge, this province needs a strong alternative media more than ever.

These topics, plus an explanation about the legacy of hug-a-thug sentencing in the Tony Lanzellotti murder, a police chief who cares more about being a social worker than caring for police dogs, and asking why cars crashing on winter streets isn't called an "accident" but the wrongful release of dangerous violent offenders into the community is, rounds out the show. Plus shout-outs and some surprising visitors to our blog today.

Please note that on Friday, we are scheduling a special about the Air Canada memo, the war of words between realists and pollyanna's, and the attitude adjustment needed by the Downtown Biz to truly get a handle on the crime and safety problems downtown.

That episode will feature an exclusive interview with a citizen journalist, who explains why it is indisputable they represent a neglected segment of the community. Wait till you hear what he has to say about the players and the political game, the message he has for Stefano Grande, and how remarkably similar his observations and experiences are, to the positions taken and causes championed by TGCTS for the past 5 years.

Far from being on the wrong track, we were right on the money about the issues and the role of campus radio to raise awareness and create a sense of community, regardless of what Red River College censors like Cathy Rushton and Graham Thomson thought.

To prepare for that special, take a look at photo-blogger Bryan Scott's danger spots in downtown, which we also reviewed today. You'll recognize all the usual suspects instantly.

https://twitter.com/#!/wpglovehate/status/121643407121711104/photo/1

THE WEDNESDAY PODCAST IS HERE:
http://tgctspod.podbean.com/2011/10/26/bizarro-manitoba-crocus-fund-directors-pay-no-penalty-foreign-students-polar-bears-ndp-priority/

Monday podcast: CJOB debate highlights Selinger's weaknesses

The outcry about the cheating tactics of the NDP campaign hit the pages of both the Sun and Free Press, and the credibility issues resulted in Greg Selinger facing pointed arguments from his opponents for the Premier's seat, OB callers, and host Richard Cloutier this morning (who seems to have identified an issue today about full time home care jobs being created as part of a "sweet deal" with the MGEU to the detriment of patient care. Imagine being told you get one bath a week, it was going to be on an afternoon you go to a church activity, and it was being cut back to 25 minutes from an hour).

Today's podcast recaps the weekend announcements and the topics of the morning debate and juxtaposes the campaign priorities the PC's and Liberals set out on strokes, diabetes, emergency response and care homes, with Selinger's performance on-air and increasingly irritated retorts to accusations of using his a way-back machine and his "Crocus calculator" to create a "phony reconstruction of the 1990's".

Harping on the supposed Filmon record rather than account for the NDP record after 12 years in power is losing traction with voters and some local media types who want answers and accountability, not homilies to "optimism" and the wonders of the WRHA. The phrase "Brian Sinclair" was heard today on CJOB, as it is in many forums now.

Also today, another phrase not heard - but it could have been - was Cheez Whiz as the price of milk in remote communities was Cloutier's punch line at the end of the debate, we report on more dirty elections tricks against a non-NDP candidate, and ask, is it proper for public and institutional officials like Dauna Crooks, Elliot Levin and Suzanne Hrynyk to be pumping the NDP campaign ?

The CCPS update looks at the plan of the University of Winnipeg and other groups to demolish the Merchants Hotel with public money. The question is why? or is it because the wine and cheese poverty pimps think it's ok for some neighbourhoods to have beverage rooms close by, but not the beer drinking working class areas of the north end they claim they want to see revitalized? Plus, what a pleasure to see that our "controversial" exposes about idiotic traffic circles in River Heights during last fall's civic election was in fact, quite on the money, with Councillor Orlikow stating what was obvious to all of us last year:

"You can’t throw out information and say the citizens are engaged."

Here is the link for the Monday Podcast: http://tgctspod.podbean.com/2011/09/19/monday-podcast-cjob-debate-highlights-selingers-weaknesses/

PS - coming up tomorrow: A star candidates' brochure says some wonderful things about Manitoba trying to woo voters but does the reality of their own life reflect those beliefs ? plus the Greg Selinger job interview parody, a great FP feature from the weekend about BiPole dividing west-side community opinions, and an exclusive insight into the gentrification of the local crack epidemic.

Twitter: @TGCTS

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/2344284529/

The Crocus Cabinet Cover-Up series: March 5th- 9th

When Premier Gary Doer returned from Washington DC last Thursday he had to immediately try to do damage control duties over a Cabinet briefing note from November 2000, which was leaked to the Liberal caucus.

Doer tried to convince the media that the Cabinet memo which hit the press while he was away, had nothing new and it was already covered by the Singleton audit, and claimed it didn't in any way show his government had acted specifically to cover up for the Fund operating in contravantion to the perspectus. Problem was, even if some in MSM took the bait, a lot of things were being looked at by the public in a new light -- and found wanting.

That didn't matter to the Free Press, who devoted an entire front page of the Saturday paper to pointing readers to an "analysis" provided by "an unnamed Grit source" that tried to downplay the collapse and losses of 34,000 shareholders.

The Great Canadian Talk Show dedicated a special week to getting into the contents of the briefing memo and what it really meant, and to hear from some of the players in the unfolding political and legal mess.

Each day we conducted an in-depth interview about Crocus, along with our usual features and notes.

In order, we spoke with Bernie Bellan, secretary of the Crocus Shareholders group; Paul Sveinson, the data analyst who is crunching the figures and helped unravel the connections between the Fund and who got money from it; Progressive Conservative leader Hugh McFadyen; on Thursday we previewed the Public Accounts Committee hearing and finally on Friday we got the report about the hearing from Liberal MLA Kevin Lameroux.

Here is a summary of what we discussed and the major issues being missed by news reporters.

Bernie Bellan explained the briefing note got him upset because he had rolled his shares over when the three year cooling-off period had been revoked. Bellan was told he was investing in Manitoba businesses, but the Cabinet memo proves that back in 2000, the government knew that new investors money like his was actually going to be used to pay out those investors who in essence, bailed.

Bellan rejected the Free Press feature as slanted by the paper's relationship with the current employer of former Crocus honcho Sherman Kreiner, University of Winnipeg president - and former Grit godfather of Manitoba - Lloyd Axworthy.

With the U of W embarking on major capital projects with Kreiner helming the campaigns, damage control came from the Kreiner defender that Sherm's plan to save Crocus was thwarted by bureaucrats in Industry and Mines who "hated Crocus" and who fought against changes to the law. Bellan pointed out the changes actually were made by the NDP, just not as fast as Kreiner wanted, changes which in then end, served to fund a Ponzi scheme while questionable investments and exhorbitant expenses were being rung up.

And then there was the illegal loan from the Solidarity Fond in Quebec, which was described as an "investment" and then used to cook the Crocus books and give it the illusion of stability and liquidity.

Bellan didn't believe that the government, whether by the reports of the Crocus board rep appointed by the govenment or by the research memos of the bureaucrats, didn't know the Fond loan was fishy. And as for the government's insistance Singleton had seen the note and included some references to it even if it wasn't in the timeline chart he prepared of the collapse -- Bellan wasn't buying it.

Paul Sveinson elaborated on problems with the way Crocus made investments that were social engineering and/or social climbing in nature, and not in the pursuit of a fair return for shareholders.

He especially focused on the sports industries, such as buying up a piece of the Manitoba Moose, putting up money for the construction of the MTS Centre, funding the ballpark and loaning money to the Winnipeg Goldeyes ball club, and the oddball decisions to pour endless sums into entertainment industry failures like Westsun ($21 million) all the way down to Blye Brothers ($1 million, zero films produced).

We had called the RCMP and asked about whether the shocking implications of the leaked Cabinet memo had been examined as part of their criminal investigation, given their access to the Singleton audit review. We reported exclusively -- No one at the RCMP could tell TGCTS they had seen a copy of the note signed by Finance Minister Greg Selinger (which was supposedly available to Singleton when he wrote his report although he said he never saw it). All they would say is "the investigation is ongoing."

Tory leader Hugh McFadyen came on the air and reviewed the reasons why this memo proved that an independent public inquiry was necessary to sort out the responsibility of the NDP for Crocus investors losing millions. He said he accepted the claim by current Provincial auditor Carol Bellringer about the briefing note having been in the audit file, but said he would stick to his guns and force another review beyond Singleton's, even if the spring budget had to be held up. He dismissed the anonymous-sourced Free Press story that had tried to spin the affair away from the need for a public inquiry - an inquiry frequently called for by the editorial department.

When challenged about how he has handled the Crocus file thus far in the Legislature, McFadyen was firm that his move to stop the bell-ringing last year was the right call because the opposition didn't have this kind of 'smoking gun' evidence about the NDP's repeated denials in Question Period of having known before 2002 of the Fund's precarious position were in fact loaded with weasel words and terminology. He said he would do it again (stop the bells) under the same circumstances.

We set out a series of questions that the Opposition could pursue before the Public Accounts Committee met on Thursday. As well, columnist Frances Russell had hopped onto the deflect the blame bandwagon the paper started on the weekend.

In a piece designed to have it both ways, "Govermnment cannot evade blame in Crocus affair", Russell used two more unnamed "sources" and Free Press favorite pundit Prof. Paul Thomas, to again twist what went wrong, now forwarding the claim Crocus may not have been violating its prospectus despite the Auditor's conclusion, and if only the NDP had allowed Crocus all the legislative changes it had asked, it would have had a fair shot against all the other labour funds. And then there was this apologia for Premier Doer:

" " ...we're using third parties outside government to deliver programs but we haven't invented sound accountability mechanisms for them " (said Thomas) ... leaving the public interest - and the taxpayers dollars - in the hands of boards of directors, frequently "enlightened amateurs" at best..."

Many of the appointees being criticized happen to have been NDP appointees for whom the government is responsible but Russell ignores that critical fact.

We also noted that the Freep had ignored the news Bellringer had decided on Tuesday, to conduct an audit into the Spirited Energy branding campaign, which meant the Free Press business relationship with the campaign was also under the microscope.

On Friday Inkster MLA Kevin Lamoreaux told our audience that he had no doubt the NDP was hiding even more information, and that Selinger had lied to the House when confronted with questions about Crocus in the past. However we pointed out that a CJOB reporter had told us that the meeting was taken up by motions and debates for an hour and 45 minutes, leaving only an hour and 15 for questions.

While admitting that perhaps the public was not happy that so much time was wasted, he explained that two of the motions were meant to get answers as sworn testimony and to limit responses to 4 minutes. Those seemed reasonable enough and he was shocked the NDP outvoted the motion for the evidence to be sworn. But then the NDP moved for the opposition leaders to apologize to the Finance Minister, a move clearly designed to waste time arguing with the opposition and stall out the time limit.

Lamoreaux said it was gratifying that the Liberals had gotten the leak last week and that he would continue to do his best to represent shareholders and taxpayers concerns in the House, as the Singleton report obviously didn't cover what the Finance Minister knew about the Fund in 2000.

In addition to our Crocus Cabinet cover-up review, we also:

Interviewed former WWE developmental talent Kenny Omega about his tag title match at the PCW event at the Lid, on a show headlined by Spike-TV star Samoa Joe. Omega had some interesting insights into the style of training for WWE and how it is not truly reflective of the styles popular around the indy circuits, and on learning the complex art of story-telling in the modern age in the ring;

Frank the Italian Barber railed about the possibility NHLPA exec Ted Saskin reading players emails, and about Ryan Smyth's agent provoking the trade from the Oilers over a difference of about $200,000 in a contract dispute;

Kelly Dehn of CTV went over the crime scene and car theft statistics, a scene which by Friday was dominated by an incident where a stolen car was used to mow down a male jogger on ritzy Wellington Crescent, an act so shocking even the remaining complacent elements within the media woke up to the danger being posed by youth criminals and gangbangers to the public;

And inaugural reports were aired from Shannah-Lee on the Human Race Machine on display at Red River College, which creates images of a face in other races; and from Cody who provided a preview of what to do around town on the weekend.