Thread by @Norlaine

I think we all agree it looks bad when an agent of the government hires the law firm his son works at for a $1M job. And that it happens to also be the law firm that other members of the same party also worked at... 1/25

https://twitter.com/KikkiPlanet/status/1194989603352010752

However, as far as "conflict of interest" as regulated by the Canadian Bar Association goes, it isn't breaking any rules. The CBA defines conflict of interest thus: 2/25

In other words, clients can hire their relatives to be their lawyers, no problem. Lawyers can profit from their work, no problem.... 3/25

Conflict of interest in this context is if the lawyer's allegiances are split. For example, if you hire a lawyer to sue a company and that lawyer's relative owns that company, and the lawyer doesn't tell you. 4/25

The conflict of interest is rooted in the possibility that the lawyer might not do a good job defending your interests because they have a vested interest in how the company fares in the suit. 5/25

People hire lawyer-relatives all the time. Or lawyer friends. Because, who are you going to trust more to manage your stuff than someone you already know? 6/25

From the government side, things look a bit darker because the contract was sole-sourced (other firms were not given the opportunity to bid) so it was decided who was getting this contract from the get-go... 7/25

Several members of the UCP have a strong connection to the firm, being past employees or related to employees. Charges of nepotism may be fair, but nepotism is not illegal. It just feels shady when this much money is involved. Another aspect... 8/25

The arm's length structure of the UCP War Room and it's Public Inquiry Into Funding of Anti-Alberta Energy Campaigns, makes everything harder to examine. And that is certainly by design. 9/25

The war room, aka Canadian Energy Centre, is set up as a separate corporation, making it immune to Freedom of Information requests. 10/25

thestar.com/edmonton/2019/…

Its 3 directors are Energy Minister Sonya Savage, Environment Minister Jason Nixon, and Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer (who, incidentally, used to work at Denton's). 11/25
nationalobserver.com/2019/10/10/new…

This, effectively, creates a black box that is unaccountable to Albertans. They do not have to give us any more information about their activities than they want to. 12/25

It would be interesting to know if the Denton's contract listed the Canadian Energy Centre or the Province of Alberta as the client. I suspect it is the CEC, precisely so the work done by Denton's cannot be examined by Albertans. 13/25

This also skirts around any shade that might be cast on the UCP government as an independent corporation can hire whoever they want without being judged by the same standards of procurement processes that a government might be subject to. 14/25

Great care has been taken to set everything up so that nothing can come back and bite Jason Kenney in any legal sense. The structure is arm's length, the documentation shows this. That doesn't mean that Kenney and/or Stephen Harper are not heavily influencing what happens. 15/25

What has Harper to do with any of this? You might well ask. It seems Harper has very close ties with Denton's, ties that are more concerning than Steve Allan's son being a partner. 16/25
cbc.ca/news/politics/…

The institutionalised secrecy of this operation is concerning. Harper's involvement is concerning. Harper, you may recall, made more than 2 dozen secret orders-in-council while in power. This is an extraordinary number. 17/25
ipolitics.ca/2015/09/02/two…

Harper, linked with Denton's, is also chairman of the IDU. The IDU (International Democratic Union) is an organisation that strives to install right-wing governments all over the world. Let that sink in. A global right-wing well-funded strategy. 18/25
thetyee.ca/Analysis/2019/…

Canada (especially AB and SK) have subsurface resources that are very valuable to some. This alone is a reason for the IDU to be paying attention. Harper is known to be vengeful. And he is very angry at Canada. We did not bend to his will. We elected a Liberal government. 19/25

So for him, beyond strategic practicalities, it may also be personal. We have seen "conservative" governments provincially elected in the past few years that seem to base policy on punishing citizens rather than on the public good. For example: 20/25
artblog.kathrynkaiser.ca/what-doug-ford…

Harper's "legacy" in Canada has been mostly eroded by Liberal legislation. He is likely quite peeved about this. He is also now free to wheel and deal with international right-wing authoritarian players... 21/25

theglobeandmail.com/opinion/articl…

I totally agree with @KikkiPlanet 's assessment that "Alberta's conservative government is corrupt AF", I just feel the corruption and menace goes a lot deeper than she thinks. 22/25

Apart from general right-wing global domination & ultimate gathering of wealth & control of resources into a very small number of hands, it is unclear what the "Conservative Movement" plans to do. Locally, we should look at the scant bits of information from the War Room. 23/25

Sonya Savage said, "This is about telling our story, setting the narrative, disputing the narrative opposing our oil and gas sector," she said. "It's not about going after individual people." In 6 months, how many times have the UCP said one thing and done another? 24/25

The war room has a well-paid staff of internet trolls, pardon me, "a rapid response team to challenge misinformation in real time", so that is one visible thing we can keep an eye on. The rest of what they may do in their secret organisation, well, that has me worried. 25/25

I ran out of room in the initial thread, but I wanted to point out that if the CAC (War Room) is the client of Denton's, and not the people of Alberta, then Denton's can work against our interests without it being a legally-contestable conflict of interest.