August 2015
Spids belie fortaleza,
ufcabc claim
The star experience
Songwriting winners
President & Founding Director
of SPIDS, Narima Dela Cruz,
clarifies the facts and clears up the
speculations.
The first of its kind in BC, The
Star Experience unearthed musical
empowerment and inspiration
amongst teen songwriters.
>opinion PAge 6
>Entertainment PAge 12
Vol. 1 No. 5
METROVAN INDEPENDENT MEDIA
Canada’s longest, most expensive
federal elections just begun
www.metrovanindependent.com
Is the Reyfort Media
Group trying to use
a ghost association?
By Steve Marshall
By the MetroVan Independent News Team
Prime Minister Stephen Harper on
Sunday, August 2, visited Governor General
David Johnston and asked that Parliament
be dissolved and a writ of election issued.
At 10:15, Harper announced in a press
conference that the election will take place
on October 19. The campaign that has now
begun will last 11 weeks or 78 days, the
longest Canadian elections since 1872.
The limit to party spending during an
election used to be $25 million. But with
Conservative changes to the election Act in
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representation in the House of Commons
spent a combined total of $66.5 million and
were collectively reimbursed $33.2 million
from the public’s money.
According to currently published
spending limits for a 37-day campaign
period, the combined spending limit for
338 candidates of a political party is $34.5
million or an average per riding of $102,000.
But with Harper’s 78-day campaign, this
figure increases by $37.4 million or a total
of $71.9 million. The spending limit per
candidate soars to over $212,000.
The United Filipino Canadian
Association of BC appears to be in part
a ghost paper organization that does
not represent many Filipino associations
or groups in British Columbia. It has for
some of its officer’s or members notorious
personalities, some involved in swindling
and other suspicious activities, against
hapless Filipino-Canadians. Yet, they
claim to represent all Filipino groups in this
province, an outright lie if one asks people
active in these associations.
There is a standard but questionable
practice in the Philippines where people
of ill-repute organize ghost associations to
attract politicians and political parties into
financially supporting them in exchange for
a glowing endorsement.
Ironically, Rey Fortaleza has been
recruited recently into becoming an active
member of Harper’s Conservative Party
which puts into question his integrity as
a former leftist activist and neutrality as a
newspaper publisher. The Tories probably
thought he was legitimate ethnic media.
His publications are now littered with
Conservative propaganda. He is likewise
actively supporting a candidate that allows
Cyber-Bullying on his Facebook wall trying
to land a seat as a Member of Parliament.
This is the second time Rey Fortaleza,
the publisher of the Philippine Asian News
Today (PNT) (Reyfort Media Group) included
my wife Luisa Marshall, myself or one of
our businesses on his front page PNT
newspaper with confusing, misleading,
self-serving headline titles that appear to
attempt to harm our reputation although he
failed to back up his claims with facts.
2013, overall party spending limit amounted
to $675,000 for each day over the minimum
37-day campaign period. An 11-week
campaign therefore allows each party to
spend $52.6 million.
Contrary to Harper’s claim that political
parties will pay for their own campaigns,
the parties who receives two percent of the
national vote are publicly subsidized. They
will be paid 50 percent of their expenses
from tax money or public funds.
Each party will be eligible for a subsidy
of $26 million each. In the May 2011
federal election, political parties with
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