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What really happened in Canada...

By Genghis - March 6, 2008, 8:02AM

Many of you may have read the story about how Ian Brodie, chief of staff to the Canadian Prime Minister said that a Clinton representative had downplayed Hillary's Nafta comments to the Canadian embassy: "He said someone from (Hillary) Clinton's campaign is telling the embassy to take it with a grain of salt. . . That someone called us and told us not to worry." (Link

I'm sorry to say that it gets worse. I've delved deeper into the story and discovered that Canada's primary concern was not Nafta but plagiarism. Canada is the world leader of the anti-plagiarism movement, and Canadians convicted of plagiarism may face 6 months in jail or 48 hours of back-to-back heavy metal tributes to Celine Dion, which Amnesty International has called a human rights violation. In 2003, Canada sponsored the International Edmund Accord on Plagiarism, which George Bush refused to sign, arguing that plagiarism isn't really a problem and is best addressed by free market forces despite the fact that 99% of English teachers agree that the problem has reached epidemic proportions and threatens to destroy the world.

Last month, Canadian spies in Duluth, Minnesota forwarded classified reports to Ottowa about accusations of plagiarism against Barack Obama. But they got the wrong candidate, and the Canadian embassy reached out to the Clinton campaign about the accusations. One Canadian official, who refused to be named for fear of ridicule, said, "You Americans all look the same to us." Clinton representatives assured the Canadians that Hillary takes plagiarism very seriously and would be willing to review the current American policy which prohibits extradition on plagiarism charges. Obviously, this news would not have played well in Ohio, which is widely known as the plagiarism capital of the world. It's economy has suffered recently from a surge in plagiarism out of Mexico.

When Brodie was approached by CTV reporters, he was distracted by the hockey game on the big screen and thought that they were asking about the plagiarism charges. He explained that the embassy had been reassured by the Clinton campaign. But the reporter was asking about Nafta. At a CTV editorial staff meeting, the Canadians again mixed up the candidates, switching back to Obama. One CTV reporter, who refused to be named for fear of ridicule, said, "You Americans all look the same to us." So the reporters prepared a story about Obama contacting the Canadians about Nafta, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Late update: The unnamed official is pressing plagiarism charges against the unnamed reporter.

Comments (18)

Let me be the first to say: ROFL!

Posted by Billy Glad
March 6, 2008 8:23 AM | Reply | Permalink

Please plagiarize this idea:

Barack "Who's Sane" Obama.

Join the movement for sanity! Join the man whose middle name tells you: "Who's Sane"

Alternative reading: Barack "He's Sane" Obama.

Either way, Sanity rules!

(Contact me for assistance if the Canadians come after you for passing this on.)

Posted by TheraP
March 6, 2008 8:31 AM | Reply | Permalink

Now everything makes sense. Thanks for clarifying things :) I am Canadian and how dare you give away our state secret?

On serious notes though, I am perplexed by how much interest Harper and his ministers are giving to the whole NAFTA thing. Normally, government would not get that heavily involve in criticizing another government based on some election campaign rhetoric. Obviously, most Canadians don't share their views. A hypothetical survey among Canadians showed that if allowed to vote in US election, majority of Canadian would vote Democrats whether it is Obama or Clinton. While those who would vote Republicans are in the minority.

Posted by cyberwanderer
March 6, 2008 9:01 AM | Reply | Permalink

I have followed this matter with great interest. It looks like the CBC (look at the report) also agrees that Obama got a bum rap on this non-event. As a matter of fact it does appear the Clinton campaign is guilty of being two-faced.

Recall the Clinton campaign ran a faux news ad using this very information. I can't seem to find (the ad did begin with the candidate disclaimer, but they repeated the FALSE narrative when they in fact were the ones who were quietly speaking to the Canadian government):

This is an election news update with a major news story reported by the AP. While Senator Obama has crisscrossed Ohio giving speeches attacking NAFTA, his top economic advisor was telling the Canadians that was all just political maneuvering. A newly released document from the Canadian government shows that Obama’s senior economic advisor met with the Canadian Consul General and made clear that Obama’s attack on NAFTA were just, quote, “political maneuvering,” not policy. Political maneuvering, not policy. In fact, the document shows that Obama’s advisor also assured the Canadians that these attacks against NAFTA would not continue. Obama would not want to be, quote, “fundamentally changing the agreement.” As Senator Obama was telling one story to Ohio, his campaign was telling a very different story to Canada. How will Ohioans decide whether they can believe Senator Obama’s words? We’ll find that out on election day. Paid for by Hillary Clinton for President.

This was an out and out lie and they knew it. Had enough? I have.

Posted by The Grand Panjandrum
March 6, 2008 9:55 AM | Reply | Permalink

Oops! Here is the link to the text of the ad.

Posted by The Grand Panjandrum
March 6, 2008 10:19 AM | Reply | Permalink

my newest conspiracy theory re: NAFTAgate...

Sometime late last week I remember seeing a nugget about Bill Clinton's scheduling of an event with Canadian mogul Frank Giustra. The comment in the post questioned whether there was writing on the wall in camp Clinton that the campaign was over, and that this meant Bill was freed to re-enter into his questionable relationship with the man.

Well, let's put some pieces together. Bill meets with Giustra, who owes him many many favors. Giustra relies on connections within the Canadian government to assure those there of Hillary's steadfast belief in our North American trade agreements. Quid pro quo, Canadian officials seek out a meeting with Goolsbee...misrepresent his comments about the nature of politics and trade agreements...leak said misrepresentation. Bingo.

Posted by pkoso
March 6, 2008 12:46 PM | Reply | Permalink

My latest conspiracy theory re: NAFTAgate...

Well, let's put some pieces together. Bill meets with Giustra, who owes him many many favors. Giustra relies on connections within the Canadian government to assure those there of Hillary's steadfast belief in our North American trade agreements. Quid pro quo, Canadian officials seek out a meeting with Goolsbee. Misrepresent his comments about the nature of politics and trade agreements...leak said misrepresentation. Bingo.

Posted by pkoso
March 6, 2008 12:50 PM | Reply | Permalink

sorry about the repost...didn't realize the system had worked the first time.

Posted by pkoso
March 6, 2008 1:20 PM | Reply | Permalink

Awesome.

The whole Celine Dion torture/Amnesty International/Edmund Accord thing had me laughing aloud. But when I got to "You Americans all look the same to us," I choked on my coffee. Good job!

Posted by laurajordan
March 6, 2008 6:03 PM | Reply | Permalink

Being from Canada I can attest that when the FTA was being debated almot twenty years ago most Canadians were against it. And if you were to poll I think it is still mighty unpopular. We have to guarantee that the price of our oil (which we happen to be the biggest supplier of to the US) is sold at the same rate to US conumers. If there is an oil shortage we have to sell to the US even if we are running out. Then there is the issue of water (we canadians have over half of the fresh water on the planet) we have to guarantee water to the US even if you have wasted and poisoned yours. I will not even get into the lumber and wood products issue where the US Govt. has leveed tariffs in excess of 5 Billion dollars and every regulatory agency (UN, World Bank, etc.) has said that the US has violated the agreement and has not repayed the tariffs. For the most part the US has been the Bully pushing everyone around. You want to blame someone blame the greedy CEO's and your current administration.

Posted by calkuch
March 6, 2008 7:12 PM | Reply | Permalink

Don't feel bad - it's not like Mexico got the better end of NAFTA either, despite the bluster about jobs in Ohio. In fact, it's almost hilarious that the US never can understand what advantages it takes out of almost any deal, and still manages to outwhine the rest of the universe.

Posted by Desidero
March 7, 2008 3:15 AM | Reply | Permalink

calkuch, you're off topic. You haven't even addressed Canada's fascistic plagiarism policies and inability to keep our candidates straight. But for the record, I blame Canada for everything bad that happens for the simple reason that blaming Canada is endlessly entertaining.

Posted by Genghis
March 6, 2008 9:42 PM | Reply | Permalink

Interesting . . . Keith Olbermann was the only person to have the balls to report on this today on Countdown, and as we speak, someone over at You Tube is DELETING the Olbermann video every time it is uploaded.

Countdown re-airs at 12:00 EST. Wonder if they'll make him take it off the segment? My guesstimate is that the Hitlery Clinton campaign cried foul and threatened a lawsuit if You Tube allowed it to get spread around.

Very interesting considering the fact that the Clinton's have allowed that "Video that Hillary Clinton doesn't want you to see" thing about Peter Paul to survive on the net. Why oh why are they so concerned with Keith's segment???

Posted by Jade Hussein
March 6, 2008 11:51 PM | Reply | Permalink

Here's that Olbermann video:

http://digg.com/lbv.php?id=5568362&ord=1

Boomerang.

Posted by Chino Blanco
March 7, 2008 1:07 AM | Reply | Permalink

Oh, and it's still up at YouTube:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=OOLEK2lr3CM

Posted by Chino Blanco
March 7, 2008 1:13 AM | Reply | Permalink

This is more FUD from the Obama campaign. What you conveniently forget to mention is that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is in Cleveland, Ohio, and that Obama to dig into Hillary's older demographics had signed onto a plan whereby they had set up speakers to blast "Oldies but Goodies" across Lake Erie *specifically* in violation of some of NAFTA's strongest worded provisions.

In short, "we gave you Neil Young, the Guess Who, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Rush, Mike Miers, Alannis Morissette, Dan Aykroyd, and Peter Jennings, and you're going to dump 'Gerold and the Bee Stingers' on us at full volume? Rubbish." The ironic thing is it would have died down, but one of the embassy worker's daughters had a peep and said, "What a load of crap", and by the time she'd finished posting this and a few rather more sensitive documents on her MyFace account, it was all over. Literally.

Posted by Desidero
March 7, 2008 3:12 AM | Reply | Permalink