Wednesday, May 06, 2009

It's Ruby Tuesday!

A little late to the party but an article in the Toronto Star today about Ruby Dhalla has just ended Michael Ignatieff's honeymoon period much sooner than I bet he was expecting. His only comment today was that they "we're checking the facts."



Since most of you are already aware of the details there is no need to go over them all again, but here are a few things that I found interesting in the article and maybe the Liberal fact checkers might find them interesting as well.

Ruby is "Shocked and appalled" over these allegations and stated that she had"no knowledge of the details regarding the live-in caregivers for her family" or "no involvement in the selection, interviewing, hiring, supervising, sponsoring or any financial transactions whatsoever with a live-in caregiver for my family."

All of the nannies say otherwise, Richelyn Tongson has stated that she was interviewed and hired by Ruby Dhalla on Feb. 22, 2008, the same day Gordo said she quit. Tongson said Ruby Dhalla gave her a test, making a noodle dish. She said the MP liked it and put Tongson on a three-week "tryout," promising to sponsor her if she worked hard during the trial period, she said.

Interesting considering that it is not just the nannies who are saying otherwise but so is Akemi Taniguchi, who runs a placement agency that placed the nannies. Taniguchi said she dealt mainly with Ruby Dhalla and placed the women after the MP assured her she could expedite the necessary work permits. "I was told that she could work on it right away because she's an MP," said Taniguchi. Also of note is that when Tongson was worried about her passport being taken she turned to Intercede, a separate agency that helps foreign workers. Intercede has confirmed that they called Ruby Dhalla's office in Ottawa and got immediate results.

That sure is a lot of people saying the same thing isn't it.


Here are a couple of other things I found interesting. Ruby is quoted as saying " I've never raised my voice to anyone." Umm, has anyone ever seen her on the attack in the House of Commons? Come on. Also one of the nannies stated that when she finally was paid the money owed to her that payment was made to her at a McDonald's restaurant and she recieved $400 cash in a bag.

Cash in a bag given at a restaurant. LOL, this just gets better and better.

So there we are. There are lots of other questions like were the proper taxes deducted, or how can a live in nanny possibly work legally without the necessary LMO paperwork, why didn't the proper government agencies know about these nannies etc, but those I will leave up to the fact checkers in the OLO to get to the bottom of.


More from Ruby on a recent visit to India.

I know the spin on this was that she had no idea that the children were beaten by the police, but if this was the case why did she in the FIRST interview make the comment that "I cannot control what the police does." unless the police had already done something that she was aware of? More questions for the OLO fact checkers I guess.



Goodbye Ruby Tuesday.........

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did you see Greg Weston on "On The Hill" - last night - he was asked what he thought about this - and his reaction - Ruby said she didn't do it -nannies sometimes have a "beef" - and after all - Ruby is a liberal - they don't do those things - right!! Imagine if that was a Conservative MP who didn't know little children were beaten when a purse was stolen - like Ruby stated while visiting India last year, imagine if that was a Conservative MP who was in a "not so nice movie" that Ruby said they doctored on her certain scenes, and imagine if this was a conservative MP who was in this mess - we would have Tabor, Oliver and Fife on CTV every 5 minutes with their smug liberal slants - wonder how they are going to hide this one! and cover it up. Also imagine if the liberals ever got in power - the media hide every controversial topic the liberals are involved in - remember McCallum didn't know what make of car he drove - according to Oliver, he quickly apologized, so that was okay - that wasn't a lie!.... if the liberals ever got in power - again the media would cover all the little bags of money that would secretly pass - and the public would never know!... just like the Adsam - no digging to see who got it - but Mulroney - how many news media has covered that..... sickening!

wilson said...

The 'new liberals' just like the old liberals.
Paper bags stuffed with cash.

Iffy's 'strong front bench' is getting smaller...lol

Soccermom said...

You belong to the Liberal Party long enough and your idea of right and wrong becomes, well, skewed and twisted.

Each Ruby apologist knows damn well if this were a Conservative MP they would be SCREAMING FROM THE ROOFTOPS for a resignation, charges and a full inquiry.

Ditto for the CBC, who has yet to utter a word on this. Shame on them. If this were a Conservative MP, that would have been their lead story.

Damn hypocritic fools.

But it certainly WAS Ruby Tuesday, wasn't it! Good one!

Bec said...

Regardless of if, one trickle, all of it or none of it, is true, something has occurred to have these nannies, reach out for help. I always have an opinion, when a lawyer becomes the spokesperson.

My philosophy, be honest right from the start. If it is naivete, say that you misunderstood the rules and offer to fix the error.

All of the human error options have now been removed from the table, imho.

As far as the comment by anony @ 4:39 am, that position of GW's absolutely reeked of favoritism, I would have to agree.
What ever happened to journalists, wanting to get to the bottom of a story? Could the answer be, they became fiction writers?

Ardvark said...

This story has found its way to most of the MSM but a quick search of the CBC finds ABSOLUTELY NOTHING on this.

Who would have guessed?

FYI the money in the bag comment is not found in the print story but can be found in the PDF of the interview Dhalla gave the Star.

maryT said...

Watching how the media is covering for Ruby, in opposition, imagine what they have covered up when libs were in power.
As someone who has been involved with Care Agencies for over 10 yrs I know the hoops they must follow to get those foreign workers here. I know they must agree to live in the clients home for 3 yrs. Most of them come to earn money to support their family back home. We have two such people caring for seniors in our town. There are set wages that must be paid.
Both parties sign a contract with the placement agency.
And these workers must have their training to be employed.
Seems the liberal thing of passing sums of money in paper bags in restaurants is party policy.
Cash is not an acceptable form of payment unless some rules are being broken.
I do hope that this scandal does not cause problems for those that are following the rules.
And needing a foot massage once a day is not a disability. I hope Ruby is not getting the disability tax deduction, or the home care deduction on her tax returns.
She seems to think, I am Liberal, rules don't apply to us.

jad said...

The other point worth mentioning is that apparently both these caregivers are currently happily employed with two other families. That kind of blows a hole in the argument that someone was just trying to get at Dhalla.

wilson said...

CTV just reported that Ruby tendered her resignation!

Goodbye Ruby Tuesday.....

Ardvark said...

I just found the story on the CBC website. They have it buried deep inside the Toronto section where it is unlikely to be seen by many.

jad, interesting comment considering that Neil Dhalla's lawyer said that Neil was, "being used as a dupe and pawn by people desperate to remain in Canada at any cost." Since they are now working in the country legally I guess that the lawyers comment is nothing more than just blowing smoke and distraction.

Ardvark said...

From what I gather she resigned from being the Liberal party's critic for multiculturalism. She at this point is still in the Lib caucus.

Jen said...

maryT said...
Watching how the media is covering for Ruby, in opposition, imagine what they have covered up when libs were in power.

. O MaryT. let us count the years of secrecy- and CBC has the audacity to say that they speak for the people and that they are a culture-yeah right.

maryT said...

No mention on the CBC, do you mean that the great Don Newman, who is getting great praise for his honest work and unbiased program has ignored this. Will Ruby be a guest panelist in the near future.

maryT said...

Thanks for the totals, that was fast. Can you provide the winning numbers for 649 LOL.
So, this could be a conservative seat next election. 700+ votes from nannies against liberals should do it.

Ardvark said...

We have to wait and see what Ignatieff does but it would not at all surprise me to see her gone.

Ruby D was parachuted into the riding by Paul Martin, just like Iggy was, and this PO'ed a lot of local Libs including the favoured candidate Andrew Kania who ended up supporting the NDP candidate in protest. I wonder if Iggy will parachute someone else in there considering he has stated that he will meet or exceed Dion on the number of female Lib candidates.

The honeymoon is over Iggy.

Anonymous said...

It's so odd that right when I'm trying to market a Kitchen product that will come in a dark red called "Ruby Chews-Day" I now hear about Ruby and her Nanny isuue .

The funny part is that Iggy the egghead professor has a real issue on his hands.

I'm waiting for the CBC news headling " The Nanny and the Proffesor" 2009, staring Ruby Dhalla and as the Professor Richard Long will be replace by Liberal leader Proffesor Michaela .k.a. Iggy .

wilson said...

The honeymoon is over and the window of opportunity is gone...poor Iffy

'Experts' in the US today are declaring the recession over, said likely over March-April....
so I thought I would check out that nifty website that meant to show how much money Canadians would have lost if they bought when PMSH said some good buys out there.

http://www.harperdex.ca/harperdex.py

PMSH WAS RIGHT!!!
Should have listened to PMSH.

Single Malt Whisky said...

Sounds like she used her position for personal gain. Influence peddling is a criminal offence. She should be made an example of, throw the book at her.