Sponsorship Scandal

Of course - of course! - it had to be called "Sponsorgate" on wikipedia. If there's any sign of government corruption, no matter how small or how local, heck even with non-governmental public figures, they'll call it something-gate. It's the go-to play on words for news readers lacking creativity. But anyways, I digress. Well, I'm not sure if you can "digress" in an introductory paragraph, but... regardless.

Here's Gomery himself. It's also the only picture,
as even wikipedia didn't have any. Apparently
no one had cameras at the time.

The Liberal party of Canada was sitting pretty. They had power for twelve long years with no end in sight, with Chretien stepping down and Paul Martin about to take his place - and likely to absolutely clean house in the election - they were rightfully pleased with their position. That being said, they still had a problem on their hands, and as usual with Canadian history, that problem came from frustrated French Canadians. The separatist movement was looking particularly dangerous, and the government decided they needed to step in and resolve the issue by gradually changing the minds of Quebec residents and their anti-Canada mentality.

So what they did was go out and sell themselves.

They started a program to advertise all the good the Canadian federal government does for the province for Quebec. This would change the minds of the public and counter the growing separatist movement. However, they... well, they made a few errors along the way. They gave out a large number of the advertising contracts to Liberal supporters - kind of scummy but not exactly illegal. What was illegal was a large number of the companies didn't actually do any work, and some of the money was donated back to the Liberal party, meaning taxpayer dollars were fuelled into the Liberals regardless of party allegiance or, you know, actually wanting to donate. Or knowing they're donating. It's pretty bad.

Naturally, when rumours of corruption and misuse of funds began to circulate, the big justice people of Canada were forced to look into it - thus, the Gomery Commission was founded. They found $2,00,000 was given to people without properly having bid for the role, $250,000 was added to a contract without them doing any additional work, and $1,500,000 was given for work that was never completed. It was a massive shock to the people of Canada. If there's one thing that's going to kill public opinion, it's going to be that you robbed them of their money.

Right when this whole thing began to surface, Chretien decided to slip out of office and pass it along to Paul Martin. Martin was the Minister of Finance as well as the senior Minister of Quebec during the time of the scandal before becoming P.M., which may be the two worst positions to be in considering the issues came down to issues of finance... in Quebec. Regardless, Martin pleaded ignorance, and whether or not that's true is not for me to decide. Personally, I find it a little hard to believe that he had no idea this was going on - but regardless, he either was telling the truth or covered his tracks well enough to avoid any issue.

The fallout was rough. The Liberals were forced to hold an election in which they lost to the Conservatives for the first time in twelve years. Liberal voting in Quebec never really recovered, and I believe many would say justly so. Adding insult to injury, it was the first time since John A. Macdonald himself that a Prime Minister has ever had to answer to a inquiry on charges of corruption...

Oh, and yeah, John A. Macdonald had corruption charges as well. Just a fun fact.

Famous Historical Figures Say the Darndest Things!

1. "This is outrageous... it's a blatant misuse of public funds." -Auditor General Sheila Fraser. This basically sums it up. If you didn't read the blog but want to know what happened, that's about it.
2. "Our national unity strategy was necessary and right. Were some mistakes made in everything we did? I am sure they were. After all, we are all human." This comes from Jean Chretien. He's right, you know. We're all human, so we're bound to be incredibly corrupt and scan the general populace when given a position of power. Oh, and that's not even touching on the 'were some mistakes made in everything we did?' line, which is hilarious in and of itself.
3. "Accountability is what ordinary Canadians, working Canadians, people who pay their bills, pay their taxes, expect from their political leaders. ...Justice Gomery did an admirable job, but I don't think we're going to drop the matter when fourty to fifty million are still missing." -Then Prime Minister-Designate Stephen Harper. I'm sure there's some sort of political commentary I can make here but I'm not well enough informed to do so. Dang.

Leif Erikson

Even in statue form, Norsemen
are pretty intimidating. 

When I thought to do a blog on Leif Erikson (Eriksson? Ericson?), I was hoping that the wikipedia page would be filled with crazy adventures, battles, and maybe some pillaging that the Vikings are so strongly associated with. While I'm not super disappointed, I was hoping for a little more violence rather than chats with merchants and going to Newfoundland. Heck, I can do that nowadays. Either way, he's still an important figure in the sense that you can correct people who say Columbus was the first European to head on over to the New World. While you're on the topic, you might as well note that Columbus also landed closer to South America and the islands in and around Cuba. Man, I wish my mistakes landed me in the Bahamas...

Anyways, Leif was born sometime around 970 A.D., about 500 years before our pal Columbus. He was the son of Erik the Red, an explorer who was famed with the colonization of Greenland - which may or may not be colonized today. Born in Iceland, he married his wife Thjodhild, which has no significant importance to his history but serves to show that the women of ancient Norse lands were not named in an effeminate manner.

A painting of the voyage. The ship was helmed
by a number of well-bearded gentlemen.

He was charged with bringing Christianity to Greenland, in which permanent settlements were just beginning. On a trip back from Norway (from where he was given the order to do so) he was blown off course and landed in what he would later call Vinland - likely on the northern tip of what is now Newfoundland. What's interesting is he wasn't the first one there - he's likely just credited as such. As the stories go, and in all fairness who is to say how accurate they may be, he rescued two shipwrecked Norseman who had crashed there previously. This, of course, is pretty crazy to think about - the names of the men who may have been the first Europeans to see the New World were, first off, accidentally there, and second, completely forgotten to history as they hadn't realized just how big a deal it was. It makes you think.

A recreation of how the settlement may have looked.
That, or a Lord of the Rings set for a hobbit town.

What's important is the land there was mighty fine. There was wheat, grapevines, and plenty of fish - so basically all the luxuries that Greenland doesn't have. Greenland can offer snow. They have snow. So naturally, after returning from the new found land, he took thirty-five men and sailed back to find this wonderful new place. According to his descriptions, they likely landed in Baffin Island first, then likely Labrador before finally settling in Vinland (Newfoundland). They brought back the spoils of the land in the form of timber, grapes and whatever else they could take. Overall, it was largely a successful mission, and they had a small settlement built there that upon its discovery in modern times would be called L'Anse aux Meadows, likely where they planted themselves. However, it could have been just one settlement for ship repair amongst a number of small places. As typical with history, it's not entirely known.

After he had his ship full of lumber, which is pretty much as good as gold in Greenland, he sailed back. He didn't return, but his brother did, this time with a much larger expedition. They stayed for a while but ran into some trouble with the Natives who skirmished back and forth on occasion, and eventually found that between the attacks and bad weather it wasn't worth it to stay. That being said, Vikings did return off and on for the next several hundred years, with Native interactions not always being negative.

I hope there's a hockey team in Canada somewhere in a town named after Vinland. They could call their team the Maple Leifs.

Famous Historical Figures Say the Darndest Things!

1. "Now prepared they their ship, and sailed out into the sea when they were ready, and then found that land first which Bjarne had found last." I'm reaching for quotes here. This was obviously said about Leif, as they're about to set off on their journey to return to the new land. Bjarne was a merchant who said he had seen the land previously (although did not land - again, I guess you could say he discovered it before Leif as well.)
2. "Leif gave the land a name after its qualities, and called it Vinland, or Wineland." See? Grapes. This was taken from his... well, you can't call it a biography. It was written about his exploits though... Diary? Journal? Adventure book? You name it. Either way, there were a lot of grapes there and he was totally stoked about it.

The Purpose of this Blog

I feel it's about time to write this entry as I feel I have gotten to the point where this blog is here to stay. At first I was going to say I always fear that point where I start a new blog or writing something new and I end up giving up and taking it down, which leaves an intensely distasteful feeling of failure and lack of stick-to-itiveness. Actually, that's true for pretty well everything - just ask any number of January 1st gym attendees that didn't make it to week two. It's a sobbing mess of personal disappointment and damaged pride from usually telling people you're starting to better yourself in a manner you give up a few weeks later. Fortunately, not everything turns out that way, and and at the very least this blog has made it over that initial small, but undeniably significant hill. For that I am... well, somewhat proud.

But that's all beside the point fluff. I feel it's time to get all meta here and write a blog entry explaining the blog itself. I am just about to start my second round of student teaching, aspiring to be a social studies major and an english minor. I felt writing this blog would help me to be better prepared for the times ahead; I can learn a number of histories to bring to the classroom, as well as gradually honing my writing skills for english class. The past year of my life has been one of the first times I've been engaged in learning something I feel will actually be useful in some way - and if you try to tell me my education classes are, then you clearly have never been. For the years previous to the last, I would coast through school (no change there) and justify my lack of progress by saying it's another year towards my degree. While this is true, I changed little, and for the most part it's not surprisingly rather depressing. I was wasting my time. Studying histories, be it through books or, well, wikipedia, has given me some degree of focus. I feel there have actually been some accomplishments here and there, and that's more than I can say school has ever given me. Also, yes, I understand the irony in that I plan to be a teacher. I've noticed this long ago and have had it pointed out to me more times than I can count.

Writing these blogs has been a way to take what I've learned and make it a tangible accomplishment, something that video games has taught me is of utmost importance through the medium of achievement points. Every blog entry, every book read, and yes, every wikipedia page browsed is one more small chunk of information I know slightly more about. What some may view as problematic is the fact that even though I have read about these things, my blog entries are so short, overall poorly researched and what I can only assume is oftentimes factually sketchy at best; in retrospect, those are pretty valid complaints. To answer that I would like to point out again that I hope to become a teacher, and while that may seem contrary to helping my stance, I would explain that I don't have the time or the resources to explain any of these histories in full. At best, I can mention some of these as interesting factoids interspersed throughout lessons as a framework for my future students to find more about it on their own later. The idea is to have a base knowledge on as much as I can to prompt students to want to research the topics more on their own time; you know, teaching an interest in the subject matter and what not. It's a little more idealistic than I normally am, but I suppose those bull-crap ed classes are rubbing off on me.

All in all, this is a means of projecting what I find to be interesting information to soon to be students. It may be inaccurate, it may be childish, and it may have literally zero readers as I have a refusal to even proofread, but it serves a purpose. And that purpose I'll keep clinging to.

Russian Conspiracy Theories Since Putin

I don't know if I should even put a caption on these.
They kind of speak for themselves.

Having just read "The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladamir Putin" I have come to a number of conclusions. One, that Putin is a terrifying man that has caused the deaths of a great number of people. Two, that I do not wish to live in Russia. In all fairness I knew the later before I began to read the book.

The purpose of this entry is to go over a few of the most ridiculous happenings since or just prior to Putin coming to office. Perhaps I shouldn't have used the title conspiracy theories when writing about it because the word "conspiracy" has the negative connotations associated with it that are often placed with lunatic "9/11 was secretly aliens" types that earn the word its standing. These are more Russian coverups that are shockingly poorly covered up. It's like when I throw a blanket over my dog - he thinks he's hiding, but we all know he's right there. Then we kind of laugh when he bumps into things. It's not a perfect metaphor.

Apartment Bombings:

This is him in his KGB days.
Oh, did I mention he was
in the KGB?

Just before Putin was elected into office, a number of attacks on Russian citizens occurred through the use of explosives in apartment buildings. Having seen this a few times already, the Russian population began to be a little more weary of scary types carting around explosives - at least more than one should reasonably expect in Russia. One night, a bus driver for a local soccer team in the town of Ryazan saw three men carrying large sacks labeled as sugar into the basement of his building. Four buildings had already been destroyed, and fearing the worst, the man called the local police who came to investigate (they arrived fourty five minutes later, but they showed up, so good for them.) Surprise surprise, the sacks were actually full of explosives with wires and a clock that could be seen through the slits of the top of the bag. The apartment was then evacuated and the bomb squad was called.

People were forced from their houses in the early hours of the morning and left out in the unforgiving elements of Russia while the bomb squad determined the explosives to be hexogen, powerful explosive popular in WWII times. The bomb was then dismantled, and the search for the men that had placed the bombs began (the man who called the police had a decent description) and the people went back to their homes, presumedly cursing "just another day in Russia". Oh, and meanwhile, a number of the apartment buildings were robbed. So that's not so great.

A president. This is an actual photo of a president.

Here's where things get a little messy. The media was originally painting the people of Chechnya to be the terrorists, as Russia has had an ongoing beef with them. However, the men that planted the explosives were members of the FSB (think FBI, but not really, but close enough). To dismiss the idea that it was an inside job, the Russian government released a statement claiming that it was all just a practice run, and that the "sugar" really was just sugar after all. The tests that said it was hexogen? That was all just because of faulty equipment that skewed the results from already using it on explosives before. Throwing all the civilians out into the night? That's all just part of procedure. The policemen of Ryazan at first confirming that there were definitely explosives? Well, they later recanted their statements.

To top it off, there was a news show that did a story on the bombings while remaining as pro-government as possible (this is definitely in their best interest.) They invited the people of the would-be bombed apartment to join in the crowd. All of them were quite vocal on how it was certainly not a training exercise, save for one man who spoke to the contrary. That's when the whole of the crowd shouted down the man, saying he wasn't living in the apartment and they had never seen him before in their lives. Seriously, as far as cover ups go... 6/10.

Now you must be wondering why the government would ever want to do this to their own people. The answer lies in the fact that they wanted a reason to storm Chechnya that would be acceptable to the rest of the world and promoted in their own country. In addition to that, for Putin to be elected, the country of Russia needed to look like they needed a strong hand. In that case, Putin was surely the man for the job, and he would be elected to take care of business.

Moscow Theatre Hostage Crisis

This one is half conspiracy theory and half massive failure on behalf of Russian planning. Some four hundred or so people were taken hostage in a theatre in Moscow by a number of Chechnyan terrorists. Their demands were pretty straightforward - have Putin officially declare peace with Chechnya. The Russian response was bombing the whole place with gas, knocking out the terrorists, and killing them while unconscious.

Now he's in a race car...

Here's where it gets messy (as if that wasn't messy enough.) The hostages had been dehydrated and hungry for quite some time already, and getting gassed takes a toll on the body regardless, so mixed with their current state it basically amplified how hard they were going to get hit. Basically what that means is puking. Lots of puking. Now, if your buddies are having a terrible night of drinking and pass out on the bathroom floor, how are you not supposed to put them? Flat on their back. The reason for this is if they puke, they're going to choke to death on their own vomit. Sadly, in a horrific and unnecessary loss of human life, 129 people died in this manner by the assault force not knowing exactly what to do with the sick as they transported them to hospitals. 129 dead, chocking on their own vomit while unconscious because the military men stepping in were unaware of how to properly care for them. The way this was shown on the news was as a tremendous victory. Pictures of the slaughtered terrorists were thrown up on the television as if no innocent had died that day.

Now where things get interesting is the gas doesn't knock you out immediately. It takes a good five or so minutes before everyone falls unconscious. One would think that if this were the case the terrorists would have obviously known they were about to be stormed and detonated their explosives. However, no explosions went off, and they eventually passed out and later killed. As it turns out, the terrorists didn't actually have any real explosives - it was all just fake dynamite vests. That means that all those that died that day had died for absolutely nothing. This information had come from, oddly enough, one of the terrorists himself. Terkibaev, one of the men in the theatre, had managed to escape just before the gas hit. In an interview, he claimed he was working for Moscow - then sometime later he was killed in a car wreck. It's difficult to assess if he's telling the truth or not, but it doesn't change the manner in which they approached the situation. It was a colossal failure and presented as a hardline stance against terrorism where the Russian government stands unshaken.

Assassinations: 

...but that wasn't enough, so he hopped in a fighter jet!
I know these pictures aren't really related, but they're
so gosh darn awesome I have to put them in here.

There were some that investigated the Theatre Crisis. Sergei Yushenkov, who passed along information to Anna Politkovskaya about Terkibaev, was assassinated. Politkovskaya was later poisoned. Alexander Litvinenko, a third person who originally informed Yushenkov about the whole ordeal, was also poisoned, but in a way that so clearly shows high level government involvement it's practically broadcasting it on television.

Polonium-210 was found in the body of Litvinenko, a former FSB agent who had also accused the FSB of ordering the death of Boris Berezovsky, one of the richest men in Russia when he was alive - there really are a lot of murders, and it's hard to keep up with all the names. Anyways, Polonium-210 is manufactured only in Russia. It's export is very carefully controlled by the federal nuclear authorities and only top level intervention from the government would allow for it to be taken - and by top level I mean the office of the President. So... this outspoken opponent of Putin whose associates had been murdered or poisoned died from a chemical only allowed to be administered by Vladamir himself...

I mean come on.

Famous Historical Figures Say the Darndest Things!

1. "I think the time has come to say a few words to the man responsible for my current condition. You may be able to force me to stay quiet, but this silence will come at a price to you. You may be able to force me to stay quiet, but this silence will come at a price to you. You have now proved that you are exactly the ruthless barbarian your harshest critics made you out to be. You have demonstrated that you have no respect for human life, liberty, or other values of civilization. You have shown that you do not deserve to hold your post, and you do not deserve the trust of civilized people. You may be able to shut one man up, but the noise of protest all over the world will reverberate in your ears, Mr. Putin, to the end of your life. May God forgive you for what you have done, not only to me but to my beloved Russia and her people." The poisoned Litvinenko's parting words. 
2. "If you are ready to become a radical adherent to Islam and you are ready to be circumcised, I invite you to come to Moscow. We are a country of many faiths. We have specialists in this. I will recommend that the operation be performed in such a way that nothing will ever grow there again." Putin's response to a reporter questioning him. He doesn't really hold back.
3. "We will hunt them down. Wherever we find them, we will destroy them. Even if we find them in the toilet. We will rub them out in the outhouse." This is Putin's hardline stance against terrorists. Personally I believe the last line to be kind of funny out of context, but that's mostly because I'm a child.

Battle on the Plains of Abraham

My brother recently gave me a book for Christmas on great, important battles. He knew I would enjoy it as it combined my interest in history with my love for violence, as well as my habit to indulge in the occasional reading session when my eyes need a rest from the video games I have been undoubtedly been playing for far too long already. Feeling a war now and then would spice up this blog quite nicely, I flipped through looking for one to write on. To my surprise, here was the story of the attack on Quebec, something actually about Canadian history in a book summarizing the world - even though the players in it were French and British. It's nice to see Canada recognized, albeit loosely.

This is one of those battles that, even though it was just one of countless others between the French and British, is recognized as being one of those "TSN Turning Point" times in history when things start to shift. The British taking over Quebec was when the French really started to lose their ground and started to give in quite heavily to British rule in North America. You can place a lot of blame (or thanks, depending if you're cool with the French taking a back-seat) on the way Canada is today for the events around this time in history. Had Quebec held their ground and been able to reinforce from their homeland properly, there's a chance North America would have a very different look today.

Louis-Joseph de Montcalm; the battle-hardened,
scowling face of a general.

Anyways, time to get down to the facts. The Seven Years' War was between 1756-1763, but the fighting between the colonizers began a few years prior. It wasn't directly war, but since it was happening so far away from the mainland and communication was obviously going to be somewhat limited in comparison, a few battles out in North America didn't necessarily mean conflict back in Europe - if anything, it just meant a lot of uncomfortable tension. It's like if you're at school and get in a fight with another kid you're neighbours with; yeah, you fought, but when you get home it doesn't mean you're going to egg his house. I mean you might... you'll want to, that's for sure... but you might not.

What caused the fighting in the first place was the French ordered the local Natives to stop trading with the British to limit their influence in French territory. The Natives weren't really cool with this as they were quite satisfied being the bell of the ball as far as trading goes - having two sides vying for your goods mean you can jack up the prices a little - and they refused. That's when the joy of having guns comes in, and the French went in there to be a little more hands on and clear the British out by force, or at least the threat of it. They then built some defensive fortifications thinking the Brits may not take this so well. That's when they sent in George Washington (yeah, George Washington, no kidding) to ask the French to politely bring their baguettes and cheap wine back to their territory. Well, that didn't go over so great, and for the next little while they fought minor skirmishes, taking a fort, then having the other side take a fort back, and rinse and repeat.

A depiction of Wolfe's death. I find the way the
Native guy is just chilling there watching hilarious.

Then the Seven Years' War hit back in Europe, pitting France and Britain officially against each other rather than just slinging some mud around in a land they're both trying to colonize. Reinforcements were sent from both sides, and suddenly, there's an army of 7,500 on both sides. Yes, that's not huge, but keep in mind they're fighting back home as well as all over the freaking world because imperialism takes up plenty of resources. What they were to fight over was Quebec, right on the border of French and English territory. Quebec had a solid defensive position, as well as a critical place in geography. Placed overlooking a splitting St. Lawrence River, and just far enough away from possible cannon fire from the opposite side, there were limited ways to attack, and was also critical for supply routes as the the river is wildly important.

A soldier drew this after the battle. Apparently he
didn't like the idea of a 174 foot cliff, so he made it
like... fifteen feet.

The battle began through the British, led by General Wolfe, attacking a number of supply lines and outlying areas of French territory in an attempt to draw them out of their nearly impenetrable fortress. The supplies were admittedly running significantly lower, but time soon became more of an issue for the British when disease began to break out in the camp. They knew they had to get the job done quick, or else risking heavy losses without even taking a shot at the frogs, so Wolfe hatched a plan. Having previously attacked the neighbouring town of Beauport, the French forces, under the command of the defensive minded General Montcalm, have fortified it even further in preparation for another attack. Wolfe then feigned another landing, drawing French forces away from the gates of Quebec. Meanwhile, they went on a daring nighttime boat trip to land beneath a 174 foot cliff just outside the city, narrowly escaping the French forces who thought they were supply ships. They were questioned upon landing, but a quick witted Brit (something that's fairly common, I assume) spoke decent enough French to convince them they were just harmless sailors... sailing during the night... wearing red coats... heck, I don't know how that ever worked.

Long story short, they managed to scale the walls, and much to the surprise of the remaining Quebec defenders, there were suddenly 3500 Brits outside the gates, albeit stretched across a very large line with no clear manner of retreat. Montcalm, shockingly out of character, decided to leave the gates and charge them on the open Plains of Abraham. The idea was to attack quickly before they were prepared and locked into a proper fighting position. However, the French that remained to defend Quebec were still large in number but poorly trained militiamen, armed with long rifles rather than muskets, much better for long rage accuracy but take much longer to load. The British on the other hand were all of their best soldiers, armed muskets with two shots in the barrel to obliterate anyone in close range. The advancing French were absolutely slaughtered, and after three months of siege, the battle lasted only fifteen minutes, both generals lying dead on the battlefield. The French surrendered shortly after.

Later, back in Europe, massive naval defeats prevented reinforcements, and Canada eventually fell into British hands, making you wonder if the result was inevitable. I do wonder what would have happened in that battle had they not believed the French-speaking British soldier while climbing up the cliff. I guess he really was a... Wolfe in sheep's clothing.

Famous Historical Figures Say the Darndest Things!

1. "Now, God be praised, I die contented." Wolfe's last words as he died on the battlefield, after learning of the French retreat.
2. "I am happy I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec." Montcalm after realizing his defeat.