A couple of days ago I published an article explaining how Cheryl Paynter falsified documents and defrauded a grant fund to pay McInnis Cooper law firm an outstanding e-gaming bill – her penalty? None. She remained CEO of Innovation PEI until 2016, then became CEO of Tourism PEI where she remains to this day.
When Wade MacLauchlan became premier. he appointed John Jamieson as his Deputy Minister of Agriculture – on May 22, 2015.
Vision PEI co-founder David Weale was interviewed by the Guardian a few days later and explained how MacLauchlan had made a very bad decision with his choice of Deputy Minister of Agriculture who Weale dubbed the “Poster Boy for Industrial Agriculture.”
Jamieson – who was the Executive Director of the PEI Federation of Agriculture before Wade made him Deputy Minister of Agriculture – had publicly defended corporate agriculture and farm pesticide use. As Weale stated in the Guardian news story:
“Gird your loins friends…rough times ahead,” he writes. “Our [Vision PEI’s] vision for the future does not include agricultural practices that poison earth, air and water. It also does not include the shaping of Island agricultural policy to accommodate the agenda of large multinational corporations like the Irving’s. Resistance is necessary.”
The Guardian noted Jamieson’s prior position as E.D. of the Federation of agriculture, but didn’t mention any of his work history prior to that. His government website “bio” did provide some additional information, however, including the following:
Mr. Jamieson, a Professional Agrologist and Certified Nutrient Management Planner, has worked in the agriculture industry for a number of years and has a wide variety of experience. Mr. Jamieson worked with the PEI Hog Marketing Board as a food safety consultant and with the Atlantic Swine Research Partnership as a communications officer. Mr. Jamieson has worked with the Fishermen’s Association and has maintained a close interest in the fishery.
Mr. Jamieson did indeed work for the Fishermen’s Association back in the 90s, but that career came to an abrupt end when he got caught fudging the books and was forced to plead guilty to the crime of “forgery”.
Jamieson was forced to pay $5,000 restitution, and was placed on three years probation. Funny that information wasn’t mentioned in his government bio.
The answer to your lead question reminds me of the old riddle “Why does a dog lick it’s balls?”
– “Because it can”
The Globe and Mail conducted an investigation into the PEI eGaming scandal and pin-pointed the situation as follows:”GOVERNMENT OPERATES WITH MINIMAL SCRUTINY”. There is literally nothing to stop the provincial government from acting like the Mafia.
See excerpt below
“The strange saga of how Canada’s tiniest province tried to become an international gambling centre played out largely in secret over the past five years.
PEI’s foray into eGaming has laid bare the overlapping world of business, politics and personal investment in a province of just 145,000 people, where six degrees of separation is more like two, nearly everyone knows someone in power and and government operates with minimal scrutiny.
The fact that the plan was illegal – and had elsewhere been used by the Mafia – is one of this story’s more mundane details.”
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/small-island-big-bet-how-pei-lost-its-online-gambling-gamble/article23237214/