Maple Leaf Corruption

Turns out that the Iraq War wasn't about oil after all, but the opposition to it was.

A related story was Canada's non-participation and lack of support for the US. Well, it looks like it was for the same reasons:

-UN hires Europe's BNP Paribas bank to administer the Iraqi Oil for Food program.
-BNP Paribas bank reportedly earned close to US$1 billion for its work .
-Congressional investigation turns up suspicious behaviour by BNP Paribas related to Oil for Food, including missing documents and improper transfers.
-BNP Paribas bank is controlled by Montreal's Power Corp.
-Power owns controlling stake in Belgian-French oil giant TotalFinaElf, one of the main oil firms working in Saddam's Iraq during the embargo.
-Power is owned by the Desmarais family, and run by Andre Desmarais, son-in-law of Jean Chretien
-Paul Martin is a former Power Corp. executive who purchased Canada Steamships from Power and is protege of Power's former boss Maurice Strong.
-Maurice Strong is a confidant of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan
-Kofi Annan's son, Kojo, received millions from a Swiss firm, Cotecna, which was hired to monitor the Oil for Food shipments into Iraq.
-All of this is just a big, fat coincidence.

But the MSM here is much like it is in the States, and blogging is less influential (so far!); we'll see how much traction the story gets.