JCT: Since most of the interesting action has taken place in
writing, I'll post these written reports as usual in
anticipation of my getting the audio and video online.

Rogers cut away from showing me with the police but my
videographer caught it even though the Chamber of Commerce
restricted taping to official media, Rogers, CPAC, the
national network. Imagine, the national network restricting
the political menu to the same they see on CPAC all the
time.

My guy caught the police escorting me out but most of it was
surreptitiously recorded out in the hallway. It's
interesting to see the functionaries scurrying around and
you can hear me through the roof rafters out in the hall so
it's amazing that Rogers CPAC managed to tune me out of the
audio and as much of the video it seems as possible.
Remember, this happened in 1997.
http://www.cyberclass.net/turmel/own971.htm

There's also reports 972, 973, 974, 975, 976, 977, 978, 979
but 971 is when I crashed the very same style CPAC not all
candidates debate.

Firstly, there were two debates I did not get invitations to
didn't find out about until it was too late. So I may as
well record that they were the "Action Read Community
Center" and the "Village by the Arboretum" retirement
community. Now come the third debate by the Chamber of
Commerce and the fourth by the Guelph Wellington Coalition
for Social Justice and Make Poverty History to which the
"anti-poverty engineer" has not been invited.

But I'll lead in with what Guelph voters were originally
told about John The Engineer coming to play in their arena.

http://www.guelphspeak.ca/

Nominations now closed for Sept 8 ballot
Monday, August 18, 2008
Written by Guelph Speak
Nominations closed today, and really the only remaining
question was which riding legendary Independent candidate
John C. Turmel would decide to run in this time.

Confession: John Turmel sat in one time as a guest lecturer
to my... Read the complete story at: Pundits Guide
http://www.punditsguide.ca/2008/08/nominations-now-closed-for-sept-8.php

Pundits' Guide
BLOG -- Guide to the Pundits' Guide
Monday, August 18, 2008
Nominations now closed for Sept 8 ballot
Nominations closed today, and really the only remaining
question was which riding legendary Independent candidate
John C. Turmel would decide to run in this time.

Confession: John Turmel sat in one time as a guest lecturer
to my "Statistics and Probability of Gambling" course at
university, back in the day. He specialized in the
probabilities of blackjack, and I guess he did his
engineering honours research project as a computer program
to calculate these probabilities. Our prof was his advisor.

The engineering students were allowed to take this course as
an arts elective, and not only was I one of the few artsies
in the class, I was also one of the only women. I used to
joke that my prof nearly flunked me because I said poker was
stupid, and I was not very interested in blackjack either,
but then I beat the president of the engineering society in
a backgammon tournament final, and in the end passed the
course. Some years later when I ran to be a student rep on
the university board of governors, I actually got a decent
vote in the engineering building which surprised some
observers. But hey, the engineers had to respect a broad who
could wup their ... well let's say, I was a pretty good
backgammon player. But I digress ...

John C. Turmel has decided to run as an independent
candidate this time in Guelph, ON.
Pundits' Guide to Canadian Federal Elections, Alice Funke
---

King of the fringe
http://guelphmercury.blogs.com/guelphvotes/2008/08/king-of-the-fri.html
August 18, 2008
Jessica Smith

Today is the last day candidates can register for the
byelection. The most recent addition is John "The Engineer"
Turmel. It will be his 67th election. While he has never
lived in Guelph, he wants to bring interest-free bartering
to everyone. You can read more about him and the other new
candidates in tomorrow's Mercury.

Here is a poem about his platform Turmel read me during our
interview (the punctuation comes from a different version of
the poem available on the Internet)

When you were little, did you ever dream of printing cash?
Of filling up your wallet with some money in a flash?
Creating money accurately means TO HAVE THE PLATES,
The stamping of some paper into notes best demonstrates;
Or stamping metal into coins; or blips computerized,
Into your bank account deposits, checks now authorized.
So whether paper, metal, volts of electricity,
TO HAVE THE PLATES is printing money absolutely free.

Now if you printed to spend, the others would bewail,
They'd call it counterfeiting and send you off to jail.
But what if government let you print it up to lend?
With only what you could collect in interest to spend?
If you could print and lend a thousand out at ten percent,
You'd make a hundred interest on printing that you lent.
But if you could print up and lend a million out you'd get,
An extra hundred thousand dollars for your fee on debt!

If government stops using its own plates and comes to you,
A billion printed nets a hundred million revenue!!
With everybody being taxed to pay you interest,
Of all the scams in history, TO HAVE THE PLATES is best!!!
Though never spending, only lending, riches do await,
To all who with the plates become the loan-sharks to the
state.
And though to join the few who thusly profit, you might
dream,
Wake up to see we're all the victims of their greedy scheme.

Though governments of old King Henry, Abraham Lincoln had
treasury run money plates,
Without the interest to middle-men at rip-off rates
Most governments today, to banking industry have lost
control of money plates that's why interest is now a cost
To service debt in '99 Canada's request
320 billion dollars taxed for interest,
we're almost $1000 each per month to pay
for interest for holders of our plates they gave away

So we abolitionists, we want to get the plates back from the
banks
And have treasury create money for only a printing charge
and thanks
The interest we save a month could be split up I recommend
For each to a thousand dollars monthly dollars dividend
As if you owned a shared in the incorporated state
An income guaranteed for life, no question, no debate
So, do you agree control of money-plates by private banks
should end,
with all that interest diverted to you monthly dividend?
---

2008Aug20
http://news.guelphmercury.com/article/370085
The big tent has really filled up
Phil Andrews - Greg Rothwell

PA-GR: Things have become crowded on the local byelection
stage, with four fringe candidates joining candidates from
the four mainstream parties in the Sept. 8 race.

JCT: Always a nasty someone to start calling the minor
candidates derogatory names...

PA-GR: Some voters will obviously look askance

JCT: Always a nasty someone to look askance...

PA-GR: at the presence of the Marijuana party candidate or
independent John Turmell,

JCT: Always a nasty some who can't spell...

PA-GR: founder of the Abolitionist party, whose dubious
claim to fame is a Guinness record as the candidate who has
run in the most municipal, provincial or federal campaigns.

JCT: No, my Guinness Records for most elections contested
and most elections lost may, to the uninformed, seem to be
my major claim to fame. But to anti-poverty activists, my
United Nations UNILETS resolution may seem a greater claim,
though I think my Turmel-Two-Step Holdem Poker Call Odds
System will end up my greatest claim to fame, but being
labelled Robin Hood by the Ontario Provincial Police for
using my gambling winnings as the Great Canadian Gambler to
help the poor, not robbing the rich to help the poor but
winning from the rich to help the poor, is a favorite claim
too. I like "Spartacus at Babylon" (always search with
"quotes") or even the "Atlas who didn't shrug" but bank-
fighter-extraordinaire is the favorite of the world's only
"banking systems engineer." Just find "bankmath" for the
only explanation in the world of how the plumbing of the
canadian banking system works.
So I'd expect a Nobel Prize in Science for the LETS software
share with Michael Linton, the last Nobel in Economics for
my "miracle equation" which discovered "shift b inflation"
and the last Nobel Prize for Peace when everyone has an
interest-free UNILETS credit card all can pay off with
credits or with work. The founder of micro-credit 20% loans
got Peace Nobel, the engineer of macro-credit 0% loans will
certainly get Peace too. And these should be the last prizes
in Economics and Peace because once the riddle of the
economic malfunction has been solved (i=0) and peace has
been achieved, (U=0), who needs prizes for guys who come
close.
I got the Crown to drop the charges against 4000 people, a
worthy claim to fame that the editors don't know about
because the media didn't mention my name when the Crown
caved in.
Even having my Casino Turmel's 28 table Poker and Blackjack
casino busted in the OPP's Project Robin Hood is a claim to
fame.
So, though my Guinness Records may seem a dubious claim to
someone willing to shoot off his mouth without knowing any
more than the superficial, I think some other claims to fame
may be less dubious. Thanks for the chance to defend myself
by tooting my own horn.

PA-GR: It seems the Guelph byelection isn't a big enough
challenge for him this election season, so he's also running
in the Don Valley byelection Sept. 22.

JCT: Bad news. Though the Election Act says nothing about a
candidate running in two overlapping Writs of Election, the
Parliament Act Section 21 imprecisely states that no one may
be nominated in two places. Without mentioning that it
should be under one writ. So had Harper called the Toronto
election 8 days later, I could have run in both. I thought
it might be neat to ask a Federal Court judge if it was
fair to presume that section 21 applies to two different
writs, who cares about the timing. But no time for that
judicial gambit. But I came close.

PA-GR: Libertarian Phil Bender and Karen Levenson, of the
Animal Alliance Environment Voters party, seem positively
conventional.

JCT: So without knowing anything about me other than my
dubious claim to fame, I'm still regarded as positively
unconventional just for my Guinness Records.

PA-GR: There will be those who say elections are too serious
to be overloaded with fringe candidacies,

JCT: And we thought this kind of thinking ended when
Russia's "elections are too serious to be overloaded with
fringe candidacies" totalitarian state came down in the mid
1980s. And of course, there, any candidate who was not their
candidate was fringe." Here, it's "any candidates who are
not their preferred candidates" are fringe. Excluding one,
two, three, half, all but one, it's all the same corruption
of the voters right to hear all choices. Editors would like
to do their readers' thinking for them, editors' prerogative
to shape opinion comes through loud and clear, but that's
not democracy even if, unfortunately, they don't know it.
And what fool would say what this fool said if he realized
how bent it really is.

PA-GR: particularly the obviously frivolous ones.

JCT: Cheap shot. Always a nasty someone to take cheap
shots. I haven't heard one candidate participate who was not
earnest. Does he mean Turmel and the Libertarian? Is the
Libertarian one of the other frivolous ones. Or does he mean
Turmel and the Marijuana Party candidate who I'll attest is
as earnest as I am about decriminalizing God's greatest
plant gift. Or does he mean Turmel and the Animal &
Environment candidate who wants to not only take care of the
environment and the poor but animals too. So other than
Turmel, who are these editorial blowhards labelling
"frivolous."


PA-GR: But democracy is a big tent and there's room for many
voices in any election.

JCT: They just don't have to like it.

PA-GR: These candidates stand to gain a measure of publicity
for their cause. The worst they will likely lose is their
deposit. That's not a bad investment.

JCT: It's not only "not a bad investment," it's a "free
investment." Just file your election return on time and you
get your deposit back. Har har har har. This should really
burn them.
---

JCT: So now we're onto the conspiracy between CPAC, Rogers
Television and the Guelph Chamber of Commerce to deny
voters the opportunity to hear from all the parties and
candidates in the Sep 8 2008 Guelph federal byelection.
The Chamber of Commerce does the dirty deed, leases the hall
so they can bar any independent media. They get the local
Rogers Television to tape the dirty deed and then do half a
dozen replays. And CPAC presents the final product to Canada
on their Parliamentary channel. Their purpose is to present
only the candidates from parties that are now permitted to
be heard on the national media, the Big Four we'll call
them.
Won't viewers wonder why they don't see their Libertarian,
Marijuana, Animal-Environment or Independent candidates on
the debate. Proof positive of the corruption of the process
right in front of our faces.
Everybody must know that the minors wanted in on the chance
to score points and everyone must somehow realize that the
not getting a chance to score in the game is being cheated.
That's why I call them cheaters. So here's what they
reported.

http://guelphmercury.blogs.com/guelphvotes/2008/08/debate-protest.html
August 26, 2008
Debate protest
Mercury Night Editor Brad Needham talks about last night's
debate at the From the Editors blog. This was the debate
that featured a certain candidate having a tantrum.
" . . . After the debate, I got a call asking the Mercury
not to run the shenanigans at the beginning and focus on the
debate. That's a difficult position for an editor."
---

August 26, 2008 at 01:18 PM
http://guelphmercury.blogs.com/from_the_editors/
What makes the news
Posted by Brad Needham
http://guelphmercury.blogs.com/guelphvotes/images/2008/08/26/debate.jpg
http://media.guelphmercury.com/images/ff/9f/5d4df3764aa8a18b5e04878cc576.jpeg

JCT: Which photo do you think they published, tough or meek?

BN: I got a call last night after the Chamber of Commerce
held its all-candidates debate (or most-candidates debate, I
guess, which is why I got the call).

During the opening remarks at the debate, independent
candidate John Turmel, who was not invited to participate,
was yelling to the audience, drowning out Lloyd Longfield's
remarks.

JCT: I apologized for having to speak "stentorially,"
loudly, which is not yelling. Having to keep it up half an
hour, it would certainly be stupid to strain my voice.

BN: On TV, it was a different story. Longfield was miked, so
we heard nothing Turmel said.

JCT: Fascinating. They could hear me through the rafters out
in the hall and they managed to filter out everything but
the moderator's voice. Lucky I approached him several times
to speak into his mike. Next time, I'll know better.

BN: After about 25 minutes, police showed up and escorted
Turmel away, or so TV viewers were left to believe as Rogers
cut to commercial break when the cops came in.

JCT: "The cops are here, quick cut to a break" said the
Rogers "Nose-for-News" director.

BN: After the debate, I got a call asking the Mercury not to
run the shenanigans at the beginning and focus on the
debate.

JCT: They must have watched the shenanigans.

BN: That's a difficult position for an editor. Do I make the
choice to give Turmel the ink he's looking for or do I
ignore a very public spectacle. It's almost a lose-lose. But
since anyone who wasn't at the debate and watching it on TV
would be left wondering what he was saying and what happened
to him after the commercial, as the newsroom was,

JCT: I guess the Rogers news director's decision to censor
all the audio left everyone "wondering what he was saying
and what happened to him after the commercial, as the
newsroom was. One man's decision to kill the truth to
everyone. What control, what power. And no one even knows
his name.

BN: I decided to run it. I even put it on A1. He's a
candidate in our byelection. He was escorted away by police.
It's news. (An aside, the caller didn't give his name, but
he had a 613 area code. I'm not saying he was from Ottawa,
I'm just saying that's Ottawa's area code.)

JCT: Since it was only covered live in Guelph, who in Ottawa
would have had the feed of the Guelph television program
soon to be on CPAC? Who in Ottawa had the feed to be
concerned whether the story's going to get out or not? They
still have a big decision, whether to censor it out or not.
Now it's harder.

BN: We gave a lot more space to the debate, with two stories
on A3. It was a tough decision.
---

2008Aug26
http://news.guelphmercury.com/article/372736
Police escort candidate from debate
Jessica Smith Mercury Staff
http://media.guelphmercury.com/images/ff/9f/5d4df3764aa8a18b5e04878cc576.jpeg

GUELPH

"I'm a candidate. I paid. You gotta listen." That was John
Turmel's message last night to an audience gathered for the
Guelph Chamber of Commerce federal byelection debate at the
River Run Centre.

Turmel, an independent candidate in the Sept. 8 Guelph
byelection, stood in front of the four seated candidates --
from the Liberal, Conservative, New Democratic and Green
parties -- and loudly protested not being invited to
participate in the debate.

After 25 minutes he was escorted out of the debate by Guelph
Police, who cautioned him about trespassing. At one point,
Turmel appeared surprised at how long it took them to
arrive. "For God's sake someone call the cops, this is
getting boring," Turmel said.

Before he left, Turmel held up a book of press clippings and
proudly announced he was removed by police from four debates
in a Brantford election. This is his 67th time as a
candidate in a municipal, provincial or federal election in
Canada.

One member of the audience tried to have Turmel
democratically booted out before police arrived and asked
for a show of hands. Three or four hands were raised on his
behalf, and a majority of the crowd voted for his removal.
He did not leave.

Turmel took on the candidates, and the debate moderator and
president of the Chamber of Commerce, Lloyd Longfield,
calling everyone "commies" and "Big Brother" in turn.

At one point, Turmel drank Conservative party candidate
Gloria Kovach's glass of water, and her campaign manager,
John White, stood up and placed himself between Turmel and
Kovach, apparently for her protection.

After one round of boos and groans from the audience he
yelled, "You think I like being here with you, the
majority?"

The debate was covered live by Rogers Television and was
taped for a national broadcast by the Canadian Public
Affairs Channel (CPAC). Rogers viewers could see Turmel
pacing and gesturing during Longfield's introduction to the
debate, but he was not miked and his voice could not be
heard on the broadcast, even though it carried loud and
clear to members of the audience.

Turmel was not the only candidate excluded from the debate.
Animal Alliance Environment Voters of Canada candidate Karen
Levenson and her party are going to lodge a complaint
against Rogers and the Chamber of Commerce with Elections
Canada on the grounds that the debate would be an illegal
contribution to the four parties invited to participate, she
said.

"It's a question of democracy and there wasn't democracy
here," she said.

Libertarian candidate Phil Bender also feels his exclusion
from the debates was undemocratic, he said in a call to the
Mercury last week. Marijuana party candidate Kornelis
Klevering was also excluded.

The Mercury is holding a televised debate Sept. 3, to which
all of the candidates have been publicly invited.
jesmith@...

WHAT WAS DEBATED
The four mainstream candidates discuss the future of Canada
-- in one minute or less. See page A3.
---

2008Aug27
http://news.guelphmercury.com/article/373176
Something important happened
TANIS FOWLER

TF: It has long been rumored that on July 4, 1776, England's
King George III made a single entry in his diary: "Nothing
important happened today." True? Nah.

It would've taken weeks for news of the American Revolution
to reach George's ears and by then, he was likely well on
his way to the craziness that would later inspire the play
"The Madness of George III."

But the diary entry idea is used as a title and a plot
device in an episode of "The X-Files," where shadowy
government figures do their best to cover up alien invasions
as wacko conspiracies. It's a bit of a stretch to think that
could happen in real life.

But then, Monday night, we got a "Nothing important happened
here tonight" phone call from an anonymous somebody with a
613 area code (Ottawa is 613) asking us not to focus on the
rantings of independent candidate John Turmel at the debate
hosted by the Guelph Chamber of Commerce.

JCT: CPAC trying to decide on whether to censor it out.

TF: We watched the debate on TV and couldn't hear what was
going on, but it appeared to be a fiasco of epic
proportions.

JCT: Good. Glad to hear it. Undemocratic debates deserve to
be opposed with civil disobedience. Glad to hear people
noticed. This could easily happen again. It could happen
every time.

TF: We could hear chamber president Lloyd Longfield loud and
clear, especially because he was shouting to be heard over
Turmel, who wasn't miked.

JCT: Glad to think he had to shout to be heard over my
stentorial patter.

TF: We were only given short glimpses of Turmel when the
camera would pull away for a wide shot. Which it did
whenever Turmel would cross into a close-up shot of
Longfield.

JCT: Did they cover me and the thief in the tug of war over
my briefcase? Did they catch Jiu Jitsu John trip and throw
the guy off? But I guess if the director is going to cut
away from the arrival of police before I took on the cops,
they probably cut away from my throwing the thief across the
stage. Sure I got hurt in the physical confrontation and the
handle broke when he went flying, but when I heard the
approving oohs and aahs for my having so quickly dispatched
the bad guy, I knew for sure they'd find a way to go to
commercial.

TF: Everyone at the debate, including the camera operator,
was doing their best to ignore him, but that's hard to do
when his face is taking up the entire screen.

JCT: And people are flying across the stage.

TF: At one point, we thought he might be an interpreter for
the deaf. After all, he was standing in front of everybody
gesturing while somebody else spoke.

JCT: I'd bet I was speaking too.

TF: Finally, the camera operator lingered on him long enough
to let us realize it was Turmel. Suddenly, it all made
sense. Turmel has run for public office -- and lost -- a
record 67 times. It really is a record. He's in the Guinness
Book of Records and everything. This will be a nice addition
to his "accomplishments," since I don't know if he's ever
been filmed being dragged off by the police before. Not that
we saw that.

JCT: Those are the pictures from my political scrap book I
was showing people. Police taking me away from meetings all
over the country. When being cheated, this is standard
civil disobedience.

TF: I can't believe Rogers didn't keep the cameras rolling
when four uniformed police officers appeared and surrounded
Turmel.

JCT: Isn't it incredible. The moderator tunes out at the
height of the action, will Jiu Jitsu John fight off four
cops to defend his right to stay. Sorry, we cut to
commercial.

TF: Now, that would have been an excellent place to cut to
commercial if this had been a TV show and we were going to
come back to find out what happened to our plucky hero. But
this isn't a TV show. It's a publicly televised debate. And
instead of watching what happened, when we got back, Turmel
was gone and the debate carried on.

JCT: You must have thought you were at some show trial in
Stalinist Russia.

TF: I guess this is more along the lines of what our mystery
caller was hoping for.

JCT: The mystery caller probably ordered the Rogers director
not to cover it at the time. Then he had to get the print
media in on squelching the story.

TF: He said he knew the rest of the debate might not be as
sexy as Turmel's outburst, but asked us to focus on the
content of the debate rather than the spectacle one
candidate made of himself.

JCT: How could someone in Ottawa know what happened in a
local-only televised debate unless it was the CPAC Big
Brother?

TF: I don't think we ignored the issues discussed during the
debate. Full coverage was on page A3. But we have an
obligation to tell our readers what happened. Especially
those watching at home who may have been confused. Police
physically removing a candidate is big news and we can't
ignore it. Sorry Mr. X.

JCT: Since the guys at CPAC have to censor the national
version, it's easier for them when less people know what
they're missing. So squelching the story makes censoring it
in Ottawa for national broadcast easier to hide.

TF: Until then, I look forward to John Turmel's campaign in
the general election.
Tanis Fowler is a Mercury copy editor. She can be reached at
tfowler@...

JCT: One person who sees why I did what I did makes it worth
ignoring the cat-calls of the hundreds who do not see.
---