Tangled webs; Gwyn Morgan, SNC-Lavalin, Cynthia Vanier and Muammar Gaddafi

Must admit I was thrilled to hear that Cynthia Vanier is getting herself out of a Mexican prison.

What that means is the payola finally got to the judge in the case.

Not that this should be any reflection on the veracity of Cynthia's case; everybody knows that the ebb and flow of bakteesh in Mexico ebbs and flows quite independently of a person's innocence or guilt.

Rather, it ebbs and flows in accordance with the depth of the pockets of those ensnared in the Mexican judicial system.

In Cynthia's case, those pockets were deemed deep indeed.

On the one hand, you had the Muammar Gaddafi clan, universally known as the biggest kleptocrats in history.

On the other, you had the SNC-Lavalin conglomerate, the poster-boys of post-colonial corruption, headed up by the anti-corruption sermonizer Gwyn Morgan.

With such a stellar cast lurking in the background, it's no wonder that it took the Mexican authorities a year and a half to come to a satisfactory settlement.

Me and Cynthia are practically next-door neighbors. An hour down the road qualifies as "next door" in these parts. I'll be having her over soon for a cup of tea, or a pint or two, and we'll get to the bottom of this story.

How much longer can Gwyn Morgan's comedy column in the Globe and Mail continue?

Every couple of weeks Gwyn Morgan is given a platform by Canada's newspaper of record, to pontificate on matters close to his heart.

What's close to his heart tends to revolve around certain predictable themes.

Government bad. Private sector good.

Regulation bad. Unfettered exploitation good.

Socialism bad. Capitalism good.

Unions bad. Minimum wage too generous.

You get the picture.

It's a pretty straight-forward regurgitation of the old-school neo-liberal manure wagon.

And in his spare time Gwyn is on the lecture circuit preaching about corporate ethics!

I know!

Every time I write those words, or even ponder such an improbability, I laugh so hard I wet myself, and all that out-of-control belly laughter leads to simultaneously having an asthma attack... then I'm trying to change my shorts while clinging to my puffer for dear life... I swear the man is trying to kill me!

Gwyn made his fortune as CEO of one of the world's biggest gas exploration companies, Encana. Under Gwyn's headship they became a leader in bringing industrial scale fracking to shale formations and fresh-water aquifers near you.

Since his retirement (i.e. waddling away with his pockets bulging with loot after selling out to a Chinese government controlled oil major, aka "the commies") Gwyn found himself sitting in the chair reserved for the Chairman of the Board of SNC-Lavalin, Canada's leading construction conglomerate.

Since Gwyn has graced that chair, his international head of construction operations, Riadh Ben Aissa, has been arrested in Switzerland, where he is awaiting trial on fraud and money-laundering charges.

And today, former SNC-Lavalin CEO Pierre Duhaimer was arrested in Canada on similar charges.

That's quite an ethically challenged operation you preside over, Mr. Morgan.

I can hardly wait to open the Globe and Mail and read your next column on corporate ethics!

I always knew my neighbor was innocent...

Just down the road in Mount Forest, they're still pissed about how Cindi Vanier could be stuck in a Mexican jail while the government of Canada does absolutely nothing to get her out.

This is consistent with the facts of some other recent posts from Falling Downs.

The Harper gang has the x-ray specs on when they look at one part of the world.

They've got blindfolds on when they look at other parts.

The NATO/US agenda dictated that the Monster of the Maghreb was a bad guy.

That was good enough for the government of Canada.

So even though Vanier was totally above board every step of the way, her government now wants to distance itself from her instead of offering up the services that are her right as a citizen.

Cindi, meet Omar.

Canadian woman implicated in plot to smuggle Gadaffi son to Mexico

Not just any Canadian woman; a farm girl from Mount Forest.

Those Canadian farm girls get around, don't they? Who'd a thunk it? A local connection to the Tyrant of Tripoli, the Monster of the Maghreb.

I drive through Mount Forest all the time. Never think anything of it. Little did I realize there was a kindred spirit residing in one of those farm houses.

In the global perspective I'm pretty much next door neighbors with anyone from Mount Forest. And this gal is trying to spirit one of the Gadaffi clan into Mexico. Who knew?

Not me, that's for sure. And I'll let you in on a secret. I've got a gaggle of Gadaffi offspring hiding in the attic here at Falling Downs right now.

That's right. The old despot had a lot of offspring, and the ones that haven't been taken alive by our NATO rebels or dispatched to the great beyond by Hellfire missles are all keen to go to Mexico.

You can see why. Mexico. Failed state where anarchy reigns. The Gadaffis are going to feel right at home.

I know there's a lot of folks happy to help the former first family of Libya out because they want first dibs on the Gadaffi billions tucked away in secret bank accounts all over the known universe and beyond.

Not me. My deal with the Gadaffis up there in the attic is they clean up the bat shit and we're even Steven. I'll even deliver them to my buddy's cottage on the Detroit River, the guy with the 32 foot Trojan. He'll have them in Michigan in no time.

After that it's a Greyhound to Brownsville and off they go. Sure, they'll look kind of conspicuous climbing that border fence going the wrong way.

But by the time the Border Patrol types notice they'll be home free.