Whipped: An Arthur Beauchamp Novel(55)
Although Emil Farquist is one of the most recognizable figures on the political scene, none of the neighbours — all were shown his offical photograph — identified him as one of those visitors.
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Frank Magazine, Wednesday, July 10
Christie Montieth’s Scoopless Scoop
You have to feel sorry for Christie Montieth. The Ottawa Sun’s hatchet-wielding star columnist got her scoop scooped this week by the Toronto Star’s Jack Feigel.
Despite a month of relentless digging to track down a certain whip-wielding star of an infamous horse opera, Montieth’s front-page spread in the Sun tabloids came as the journalistic letdown of the decade. A month’s work, and beaten by one day.
Blame the powers-that-be at Postmedia. Frozen with fear at the prospect of facing a massive libel suit, they muzzled Christie until she got her facts checked and backgrounded. Doubtless they worried she was the infamous twitterer BDsmother — who, incidentally, has not been heard from since the recording went viral.
Christie vigorously denies being the leaker. But it’s obvious that Margaret Blake’s notorious gossip was bounced around the various Sun newsrooms like a badminton bird, and BDsmother could, for all we know, be some mischief-making cub reporter. That wouldn’t free them from liability. Thus their imposed silence.
That’s how you get scooped. Playing it safe.
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Reuters Business Briefs, Thursday, July 11
CALGARY — Sibericon, the Russian energy consortium, has bought a 5 percent shareholding in Coast Mountains Pipelines Inc. for $900 million.
Owen Gilman, Coast Mountains’s CEO, said the infusion of capital puts his company on a solid footing to pursue construction of the multi-billion-dollar pipeline currently awaiting Canadian government approval.
The Russian investment, he said, is intended to satisfy the Canadian government’s demand for a performance guarantee before signing off on the project. “All our ducks are now in a row,” Gilman said. “We are ready to work with the Canadian government and the energy sector in helping grow our economy.”
The project, which has stirred controversy in Canada, would connect Alberta’s tar sands with a West Coast deep-water port at Prince Rupert, B.C.
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Canadian Press, Tuesday, July 16
CALGARY — Canada’s preeminent conservative think tank has announced the resignation of Alfred J. Scower, its executive director.
In its press release, the Bow River Institute praised Scower, who has a doctorate in economics from Princeton, for his “unsurpassed leadership” during his five-year tenure, but said its board of directors was in disagreement with him on “some fundamental principles.”
Those were not stated, but Scower has been quoted as questioning the merits of the Coast Mountains Pipeline project, which was formally approved on Monday by cabinet decree. Opposition parties have loudly condemned the government’s decision to skirt a Parliamentary vote on the hotly contested pipeline issue.
A source at the institute told Canadian Press that Scower’s lukewarm approach to oil sands development was scaring off the institute’s major donors, the energy sector. “There was a feeling here he was turning a little green on us,” he said.
Scower declined to comment other than to deny he resigned under pressure. He said he expects to return to his professorship at the University of Alberta.
Scower’s immediate predecessor as executive director was federal environment minister Emil Farquist, who, after winning a seat in Parliament, announced he was cutting off all ties to the institute to avoid any suspicion of favouritism.
Bow River is a major recipient of government research grants.
THE SIERRA FILE
Thursday, July 25
Dear Arthur,
Mucho tiempo has passed since my last report, and I have no excuse that wouldn’t properly be answered by a boot in the sternum. I have been travelling about Quebec, but that’s an insufficient answer. I had felt besieged by the throngs of press and onlookers outside my barren little flat. That’s weak, too.
The truth is I have not until tonight been visited by the muse of composition. But I have opened a bottle of Provencal Rose (in honour of the neglected roses of my garden) and have lit an Escepcion de Jose Gener, Havana-rolled, and, with window open, am enjoying the heat of a midsummer evening.
Rue de la Visitation has finally settled down, the curious having found there’s little to see. The street is so named to honour the Virgin Mary’s visit to her pregnant cousin Elizabeth (Luke i. 39). In another sense, a visitation connotes divine retribution, usually for one’s sins, though occasionally God comes bearing favours.
And He visited me with one, as you’ll learn.
But let me deal first with other matters. The passenger manifest for Ms. Glinka’s flight on June 7 (I won’t divulge how I came upon it) shows she flew nonstop to Paris with a connection to Nice. If it will not break the bank, I propose to travel there myself.
I have been to Mr. Farquist’s retreat in the Gatineau Hills and have cautiously approached a few persons living or working nearby. None could recall seeing Ms. Glinka or her Miata. But theirs is a less-travelled road, and a car may easily slip down unnoticed to Lac Vert. I shall be returning to the area.
I have not seen the Lincoln Navigator wander by since its last brief visit, on July 7, when its passenger, who remains a mystery woman, tried to rouse the absent Mr. Sabatino.