A commenter pointed out that Mike Daley was really a fellow named Michael Gordon Bracci. Bracci went to the UK and resurfaced on Twitter as Lord Credo. He’s been a busy guy since his cyber-squatting and deception in Canada. The Blog That Peter Wrote chronicles  Bracci’s lies as Lord Credo:

In brief this is the picture of how he has portrayed of himself:

- He was David Cameron’s personal advisor and representative
- He reported only and personally to David Cameron and the Chief Whip
- Only the Chief Whip and his “good friend” William Hague knew his identity online
- He was on the same level with Andy Coulson, was offered his job, but refused it
- He previously worked for the Canadian PM and was personally head-hunted to work for ours
- Somehow, however, he also fitted in working for the Archbishop of Canterbury in comms
- He had read theology, trained as a priest, worked as a policeman briefly in Ontario, then as a pilot, before going into politics/ communications. He suffers from MS.

Credo resigned his job for David Cameron in May, but is currently on gardening leave.  This was because of a personal falling out, even though the Prime Minister has apparently called him and begged him to return to his job.  It coincides with the diagnosis of a brain tumour (more on this later).

Credo’s “offline” name is Mike Paterson.  He has always taken pains to protect his identity, because he is so “high level”.  I did hear him give this name, however, in my presence to officers of the Essex Constabulary in May 2011.

Mike Daley/Paterson/Lord Credo/Bracci landed himself an interview at The Huffington Post as one of four high level Tories Who Tweet Anonymously.

During his time in the UK as Mike Paterson, he took advantage of people’s kindness this past summer, crashing at various homes, borrowing money and not paying it back, and escalating his deception. He announced on his Lord Credo twitter feed that he had a malignant brain tumour, telling his long suffering hosts offline about his ‘late’ wife, who turns out to be alive and well:

Mike is still married.  His wife is not a dead medical doctor in Sydney, but in fact teaches philosophy at an American university.  She is a former evangelical Christian, turned traditionalist.  From what I can see on line she appears to be very much alive.  She did grow up in the Black Forest, which he had mentioned a couple of times to me about his “late wife”.  She talks in one Canadian magazine interview about their traditional marriage and how her husband Mike has moved to London for a job in PR, but that they make things work.  I’ve no idea if she knows about his now girlfriend and how that fits in exactly with this viewpoint.

Before his deception in the UK unravelled  offline the past week, Bracci approached Richard Bartholmew as Lord Credo:

I became aware of “Lord Credo” a few months ago, when he offered to bring complaints by Tim Ireland about Nadine Dorries’ conduct and its consequences to the attention of Cameron’s office. Tim agreed to send him documentation in return for proof of delivery, at which point “Lord Credo” became hostile and jumped on the smear-against-Tim bandwagon (a bandwagon which more than one cyber-thug has found it convenient to join).

When his Lord Credo/Mike Paterson deception collapsed, Bracci, who had no “residency or work permit” to be in the UK,  hightailed it back to Canada. As Lord Credo, he tweeted that within a few hours of landing his mother died. His mother is alive and well. He deleted his Twitter account and threatened to commit suicide if  Peter at The Blog That Peter Wrote did not remove his post:

20/8 Additional Information: Credo admitted in public on his profile, after this post was published, that he was a liar.  He then deleted the profile.  He has been in constant IM contact with me throughout today, threatening suicide at one moment if I did not remove this blog (only to ask 10 minutes later: “are you still there?”), through to begging for forgiveness, and then justifying his actions.  He’s admitted that his wife is not dead and says he’s in contact with her.  I’m simply screen saving everything, refusing to let him manipulate me in the way he wants, and warning him to steer clear of anyone in my circle of friends.

For anyone thinking “whatever” I want to stress this is not about a fake Twitter account – it’s about a person who has used the medium to trick people in real life and caused massive upset.  Help he clearly needs, but my responsibility is to those I care about, which is why I published this.

21/8 Finally, according to his girfriend (and as tweeted by her) his mother is “very much alive” and she has spoken to her.  She has also tweeted that Michael conned her personally out of £15,000.

In the 2 years Michael Bracci was in the UK, he managed to deceive elected government officials, media and bureaucrats, and people who befriended him.  I’ve no doubt the PMO never heard of him. Given his years of fantasying, roleplaying and shit-disturbing, it’s likely Bracci will surface with another online confidence game sooner than later.

Who’s blogging?

Joshua Lachkovic’s Blog: How did Downing Street not know about Lord Credo?

Admiral PR: Out-twitted: how@Lord Credo used Twitter to con his friends and 4,400 followers

Update: I’ve set up a sub-page to help organize a campaign. Visit http://www.slapupsidethehead.com/action/

On Wednesday, I posted a story about how Exodus Global Alliance—a religious organisation that offers “freedom from homosexuality” through prayer and something they call sexual reorientation therapy—was denied charitable status in New Zealand.

This piqued my curiosity, and a quick search of Canada’s registered charities showed that Exodus is, indeed, enjoying tax benefits as a registered charity here in Canada.

Since Wednesday’s post, a lot of people have emailed me in agreement that “curing” gays should not be considered a charitable activity in Canada and have been asking what they can do about it. Here’s what I know, and what I think can be done.

First, though, a bit about Exodus Global Alliance and what they do.

What is Exodus?

Exodus is a U.S.-based religious organisation whose slogan is “proclaiming freedom from homosexuality.” Despite all scientific evidence, Exodus claims that homosexuality is a mental disorder and that gay people can change through prayer and reparative therapy.

Exodus, in association with the American Family Association, a U.S.-based, anti-gay lobby group, is mainly responsible for the Love Won Out conference, held several times a year across the U.S. and Canada. This conference includes unaccredited counseling sessions, seminars for dealing with gay family members as if they are disordered, and prayer sessions.

Why is this a bad thing?

Reinforcing the idea that people should detest their natural sexual orientation can lead to demonstrable harm, but more basically, sexual orientation is not a recognised disorder and cannot be changed. There are simply no peer-reviewed studies to support it. The best that Exodus can cite are participant surveys likeJones and Yarhouse, published in a non-scientific journal by InterVarsity Press, a Christian publishing company; Schaeffer, et al., published by the in-house press of Biola University, a private Evangelical Christian school in Los Angeles; andPonticelli, who hand-selected a statistically unusable sample size of only 15 participants for her results. As participant surveys, none of these are objective studies. (A participant survey of suicide cult members, for example, would suggest that joining such a cult is a life improvement because the members would report satisfaction and believe that they’re doing the right thing. It’s an extreme example, but it demonstrates the flaw.) And yet, even these surveys largely show that a majority of participants were unsatisfied with their experiences at Exodus!

While Exodus likes to spin the same argument around and claim that the “gay lifestyle” (whatever that means) is harmful even if gay people don’t agree, this is not backed up by the medical and psychological community. The world’s largest and most well-respected medical organisations have all gone on record to say that homosexuality is not a recognized disorder, that gay people are not inherently worse off than straight people, that sexual orientation is unchangeable, and that attempts to change it often result in serious psychological harm. These organisations are easily citable and instantly recognisable, including the American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Association of Social Workers, the American Counseling Association, and many others.

The consensus from the medical community is further evidenced by Exodus’ spectacular failures, including the coming out of two of its founding members and several former Exodus leaders, as well as the countless private members who have left their organisation confused and distraught.

Do Exodus’ activities violate Canada’s rules for charitable status?

Probably. All registered charities operating in Canada must provide what the Canada Revenue Agency calls a “public benefit.” This is a long legal definition that I can’t claim to fully understand, but, of particular note, a charitity’s activities must be “regarded as valuable by the common understanding of enlightened opinion,” and such value “must be weighed against any harm that may arise from the proposed activity and a net benefit must result.”

Since homosexuality is not a recognised disorder by any respected medical organisation, it’s questionable as to what benefit could come out of trying to treat it as one. Moreoever, the consensus in the medical community is that all attempts to treat homosexuality as a disorder may cause serious psychological harm. With no clear benefit, and demonstrable harm from Exodus’ actions, I think there’s a strong case to argue that Exodus’ activities do not meet Canada’s criteria for charitable status.

Exodus has already been awarded charitable status; can it be revoked?

Yes. Charitable status can be revoked for one of three reasons: Voluntary revocation (unlikely in this case), Revocation for failure to file taxes (also unlikely), or revocation for a cause other than a failure to file. The latter is complicated, but states that charitable status can be revoked for “a failure to comply with the requirements of registration,” which may include the “public benefit test.”

According to Revenue Canada, claims of public benefit by any charity “may be [...] rebutted by concerns raised,” and there is definitely legal precedent of this.

How do I raise a concern with Revenue Canada?

Contact Revenue Canada’s Charities Directorate at 1-800-267-2384 and ask for your concerns to be directed to the Charities Compliance Division, or write to them:

You can also submit your concerns via email. CharitiesComplianceDivisi.LPRA@cra-arc.gc.ca

While you’re at it, contact the Office of the Commissioner and Office of the Deputy Commissioner of the CRA:

I recommend simply stating something along the lines of the following:

I’m concerned that the activities being performed in Canada by Exodus Global Alliance, a registered charity, do not meet the criteria of a public benefit as defined by the Canada Revenue Agency.

Exodus’ primary activities include the promotion and treatment of homosexuality as a mental disorder—a notion not supported by the medical and psychological community. Since homosexuality has not been listed as a disorder in medical literature since the mid 1970s, it does not require treatment as promoted by Exodus. Several respected medical and psychological associations, incuding the American Medical Assocation and the American Psychological Association, have issued official statements attesting that such treatments may even result in serious psychological harm.

For these reasons, and in the interest of Canadians, I believe Exodus Global Alliance’s charitable status should be re-evaluated according to the Canada Revenue Agency’s public benefit criteria.

I think it’s reasonable to expect that, with enough expressed concern, and backed by a supply of evidence that Exodus simply can’t refute, the CRA will launch the process of revocation for a cause on Exodus Global Alliance. But they need to hear our concerns first. Slap into action, share this story with your friends, and let the Canada Revenue Agency know that “curing” gays shouldn’t be a charitable activity in Canada.

Where can I learn more about these gay “curing” societies?

The activities and distortions of several Exodus-like organisations are well-documented. I strongly recommend visiting Truth Wins Out, an organisation dedicated to exposing the myths and political motivations behind organisations like Exodus. Box Turtle Bulletin also regularly posts exhaustive investigations into these organisations, exposing the deliberate distortions used to back up their claims.

Take Action! “Curing” gays shouldn’t be a charitable activity in Canada. Help put a stop to phony charities and Slap into Action!

Slap Upside The Head

Update: Xtra has an article on Mark McIntyre’s campaign, including the benefits Exodus Global Alliance receives from having Canadian charitable status. Ex-gay group’s charitable status questioned

Pawlowski is identified as head pastor of Kings Glory Fellowship Association, which, according to Equipping Christians for the Public Square,  faithfully filed a tax return as a charity for the last 30 years.

Kings Glory Fellowship Association was listed at Revenue Canada Charity Directorate under Other Denominations, Congregations or Parishes, (not else classified). As  a charity it would  have had a board or trustees. They would have hired their head pastor. The current head pastor is Artur Pawlowski.

Kings Glory Fellowship Association got it’s charitable status revoked by Revenue Canada in October.

Meantime back in Calgary, head pastor Artur Pawlowski gets himself known as a combative street preacher and head of a group called he calls Street Church Ministries. He’s got religious right sites believing his new minis is being persecuted.

Street Church Ministries is not listed with Revenue Canada, but it takes donations and has the same address as Kings Glory Fellowship Association.

One is not the other in the eyes of the government and rightfully so. One gets it’s charity licence yanked for not filing, one isn’t listed as a charity but takes donations on it’s website.

Street Church Ministries is saying it is going to take the case of  Kings Glory Fellowship Association charity licence being yanked to court. It is run by Artur Pawlowski who is the one yelling persecution.

The board of Kings Glory Fellowship Association is responsible for filing it’s tax return, responsible for who it hires as head pastor.  Holy Post:

Artur Pawlowski, the head of the Kings Glory Fellowship, said his group “has nothing to do with politics and we do not advertise for a party or a candidate. The only political activity you can connect us to is defending our right to speak.”

Mr. Pawlowski said the primary mission of his church is to feed homeless people. He said this group supplies food for about 150,000 a year, mainly to people “that no one else wants to deal with.”

“When we feed people we don’t care whether they are homosexuals or have had abortions or been divorced but we preach what the Bible says about those issues.”

Maybe Kings Glory Fellowship Association does feed homeless people. So apparently does Street Church Ministries.
Street Church Ministries is involved in political activism and as such cannot cross the 10% threshold of involvement required by law.

Where is the persecution?
If Kings Glory Fellowship Association board filed for a name change to Street Church Ministries, where is it listed?  Since when can a group be politically active (Street Church Ministries) and misuse the charitable status of another group (Kings Glory Fellowship Association)?

Small but important detail wouldn’t you think?

I’ll update and correct this post if someone can show me what’s in a name.

Update: Alberta Gazette DON ROSS MINISTRIES, ASSOC. Alberta Society Incorporated 1984 JUL 30. New Name: THE KINGS GLORY FELLOWSHIP ASSOCIATION Effective Date: 2005 JUN 29. No: 503153363
Canada Gazette THE KINGS GLORY FELLOWSHIP ASSOCIATION, CALGARY, ALTA  118887280RR0001

Ron Mainse is the director of broadcast interests at Crossroads, and was co-host of the flagship show 100 Huntley Street. His brother Reynold also hosted at 100 Huntley Street and was VP of Crossroads Missions.

The statement from the board June 5, 2009 was terse and viewers were assured twice by Jim Cantelon that Crossroad funds were not involved.

“Hello I’m Jim Cantelon. You’ve noticed over the past few days that there have been changes in the opener in terms of the opener of 100 Huntley Street; you’ve been looking for Ron and Ann, you’ve been looking for Reynold and Kathy.

Well the board of Crossroads have asked me to inform you that Ron and Reynold Mainse will not be appearing on any Crossroads programming or otherwise represent Crossroads for the time being as they focus their energies on certain matters in their personal lives. They’ve stepped down from their duties until such time as the board of directors have complete understanding of all the issues related to a matter that they were involved in outside of the ministry here at Crossroads.

David Mainse, Moira Brown and I and other guests will continue to offer interesting, I hope, exciting interviews and stories on 100 Huntley Street from across Canada and around the world.

100 Huntley Street, which is a ministry of Crossroads Christian Communications was launched in 1977 by Crossroads founder David Mainse and in it’s 32 year history, Huntley Street, one of Canada’s longest running live daily television programs has faithfully presented the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, as you know, along with countless inspiring individual stories of faith to a growing national audience.

Today Crossroads stands apart as the largest and the most prolific media communications ministry in the country. Crossroads board of directors, it’s executive leadership, it’s unparalleled team of dedicated people are ever more committed to excellence in and through it’s programming, it’s global missions programs and it’s children’s camping ministries.

And we’re grateful to God for the thousands of partners who continue to financially and prayerfully support the work of Crossroads and we thank you for your kind consideration of these comments.

Hamilton Spectator Local man accused in $14m ponzi scheme
I asked Dr. Mark Byron an instructor of finance, economics and management at Sullivan University in Kentucky to break down the financial and regulatory complexity of Axcess Funds run by Gordon Driver. Used by permission.
His information below the fold – Innocent Greed

…It seems that some of the folks behind the Canadian Pentecostal TV show 100 Huntley Street (it’s been compared to the 700 Club but seems more like the Crouch’s stuff on TBN that that from what I’ve seen of it) were victimized in a Ponzi scheme revolving around commodity trading; at least that was the cover. The folks behind the scheme lost a small fortune on trading but took in a larger one from “marks”.

Bene’s asked for some professional help from his finance buddy-”Post away on your blog, if I’m reading this right it appears the two Mainse brothers [sons of the show's founder] were finders, however I don’t understand enough to say that. Either way, huge blow to this Canadian ministry. People are hurt. ”

According to this Hamilton Spectator piece, the Mainse brothers were what the piece called “finders” who were helping the purported scamster, Gordon Driver, who worked at 100 Huntley Street as a teen.

Driver testified that he was going to sell a computer to Reynold Mainse, Ron’s brother, when Reynold noticed some charts on the computer related to Driver’s supposed trading software.

Reynold Mainse became interested, Driver testified, and eventually invested some money. Ron Mainse also became an investor.

In Driver’s April 23 testimony, he alleged the two Mainse brothers also acted as finders, bringing other investors to Driver.

A lot of money is spent on prediction software working on “technical analysis”, trying to make predictions of future stock and commodity market behavior based on past patterns. Such analysis tends to be descriptive of past returns but typically does a lousy job of predicting future returns, with any profits from such programs getting eaten up by trading commissions; at least that’s what I teach my finance students. Please note that the technical analysis isn’t fraudulent in and of itself, but just not overly effective as a general rule.

That being said, such technical analysis gets played up on financial TV shows (the purdy pick-tures of technical charts make “better” TV than fundamental analysis, much as audience members getting slain in the spirit makes “better” TV than serious Bible exposition) and tons of folks, including the Mainses, can get suckered in.

Meanwhile, onto the company pulling off the scam. I looked into the Securities and Exchange Commission’s EDGAR database for any record of Axcess Automation; publically traded companies have to file quarterly 10-Q and yearly 10-K forms of financial data and other information. No such luck.

There is a Texas-based Axcess International (the report has them incorporated in Delaware, but most big US companies have their titular HQ there to take advantage of Delaware’s permissive corporate governance laws) that specializes in miniature tracking devices (RFIDs); here is it’s latest quarterly report (10-Q) with the SEC for the first quarter of 2009. Despite bleeding red ink for the last five year, they seem to have enough promise to have secured new stock investors for the last five years per their statements of cash flow.

If you’d like to take a flyer, you can buy them for US$0.41/share per MSN Money’s page on AXSI. However, they’re so risky that they are traded over-the-counter, not on NASDAQ, well meeting the definition of “penny stock.”

However, that’s not the critter that seems to have gotten the Huntley Street boys scammed. The SEC has no record of them. That’s entirely possible, for they generally regulate only publically-traded companies. Many mom-and-pop companies with a small number of investors don’t have to deal with them, and if Axcess Automation didn’t have enough investors to warrant a SEC filing, they might not be on their radar.

Next stop, the CFTC, who regulates the futures markets in the US; it’s an oddity of US finance where the CFTC is part of the Agriculture department, since it was ag futures that they first started overseeing before oil and financial futures became the biggest part of that market. They do know about these guys and shut them down last month.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced today that on May 14, 2009, the Federal District Court in Los Angeles, California, entered an order freezing the assets of Gordon A. Driver of Las Vegas, Nevada, and his Las Vegas-based companies, Axcess Automation LLC (Axcess Automation) and Axcess Fund Management LLC (Axcess Fund Management). On the same day, the CFTC filed a complaint charging them with fraudulently soliciting commodity pool participants, misappropriating participants’ funds, and issuing false statements to participants in a $13.5 million fraud involving over 100 participants in the United States and Canada.
“Domestic and foreign regulators will continue to cooperate and combine our resources to combat the pestilence of Ponzi fraud schemes that cross borders,” said CFTC Acting Director of Enforcement Stephen J. Obie.

The CFTC complaint alleges that, from at least February 2006 through the present, the defendants defrauded pool participants, misappropriated pool participant funds and operated two commodity pools as a Ponzi scheme, using newly received participant funds to pay purported profits and withdrawals to other participants.

Defendants allegedly misrepresented to prospective pool participants that Driver’s trading generated monthly profits of around 20 percent and issued false account statements to give credibility to these misrepresentations. According to the complaint, despite accepting over $13.5 million, the defendants used only about $3.7 million for trading during the relevant time period, and Driver’s trading during that time resulted in approximately $3.5 million of trading losses, or 95 percent of the funds invested. Pool participant funds were also allegedly commingled with non-pool funds.

In addition, here’s the court paperwork the CFTC filed in US District Court in California and the order telling Mr. Driver to stop driving his financial scam.

The sad part of the story is that the Mainses got sucked in, seemingly innocently (other than a less-than-innocent lust for a quick profit), to the scheme. A lot of otherwise honest Jewish folks got sucked into Madoff’s scheme and, as, we might remember from the back-history of the Todd Bentley story, his Lakeland host church’s predecessor got rocked when the pastor’s son pulled off a major financial scam at the expense of quite a few parishioners.

It will be interesting to see if the Mainses, like quite a few of Madoff’s victims, were just innocent, if a bit greedy, victims or knew better and sucked people in anyway.

The Universal Aide Society website is still up with no mention of the revocation, along with some letters from supposed charity leaders praising Universal Aide Society.

The Arizona Republic takes a look at the ‘pass along’ practise and Universal Aide Society tie ins with a Phoenix televangelist Don Stewart and the St. Louis Bible Fellowship.
Stewart is a story in himself, taking on the mantle and organization of A.A. Allen, a known Pentecostal fraudster and operating openly for near 40 years.
According to the Phoenix Register, Universal Aide Society did more than run a personal piggy bank out of BC:

“Gremyachev is a director for two charities in the United States called Universal Heart in South Bend, Ind., and Universal Aide Society America in Tampa. Both charities were set up after the Canada Revenue Agency began its investigation of Universal Aide in 2005.”

The Toronto Star fills in details on how the scam operated in High-flying charity grounded.

When did tracking down ministerial credentials become synonymous with “wild goose chase“? YaYa Canada

Bill Kinnon

He calls himself, Dr. Charles McVety. One of Dr? Charlie’s Mac’s jobs is working as the president of Canada Christian College. You’ll find Chuck’s faculty data here. Where he claims a D.Min from California State Christian University. According to the site, his dear wife, also has an honourary doctorate from that famous half Catholic seminary – “Canadian Semimary.” (I’m sure they missed putting the hyphen in – it should have been Semi-Mary.)

But let’s take a quick look at California State Christian University, where Brother Chuck got his Doctorate. On one of the many sites that appears to be inter-related to his world, the Evangelical Order of Certified Pastoral Counsellors of America (located in that famous American city, Burlington, Ontario) they have this to say about CSCU:

Located in beautiful North Ridge California, the CSCU is an accredited Christian educational institution that offers students the option of studying for their degree on-campus or by enrolling in their Distance-Learning program. There are Graduate and Undergraduate Degree Distance Education Programs that allow you to work towards earning your Bachelors, Masters or Doctoral Degree at your own pace. [emphasis added]In the next line, they offer a link to the CSCU site that hasn’t ever worked – sadly, they must not have got the memo that CSCU actually has a website up (as of the last couple of months – and not to be confused with this one, as ToujoursDan pointed out in the comments below).

Here’s a shot of their beautiful North Ridge Campus (which just happens to be around the corner from California State University Northridge- not that one would want to confuse the two). The shot is from Google’s Streetview.
Oddly, this also happens to be home to Soul Christian Assembly Church, led by Dr. Samuel Kim. (Poor Soul seems to have some tax issues – scroll down on this page -although they are a tax exempt organization.) Now Soul’s leader wouldn’t happen to be the same Dr. Samuel Kim who has a degree from Canada Christian College and is a member of the extended faculty of the college, would it? And odder still, the map on the new website shows the campus in Irvine. According to this data, the phone number on the website is a cell phone, so perhaps CSCU actually is a mobile campus – meeting on something as small as a Honda 50 or as large as a semi-trailer. (Perhaps either one is parked behind the building in the above image.) Who knows?

I should add that I called the CSCU number on this link last fall. The number is located in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles. Each time I called the phone was answered by someone who may have been Korean and who spoke only limited English. She assured me this was CSCU but told me to call back. When I did call back I got the same person with the same request. (It didn’t matter what time of day I called.) I haven’t bothered to try the cell phone number.

Let me just say this to the Canadian media who offer a platform to Dr? Charles McVety. If I, a simple blogger, can find these details in a matter of minutes, then why can’t you do the journalistic research you are paid to do to expose this publicity hound who purports to represent Canadian Christians. Is it perhaps that you hold Christians in such disdain that you take any opportunity to make it look like Dr? Chuck represents us all. Let me provide you with a piece of information you’ve chosen to ignore – he doesn’t.

And, Dr. Charles McVety, if I’m wrong and you actually have an earned Doctorate from an accredited Christian University/Seminary or even Semi-Mary, then I apologize. All I’d ask is you produce your Doctoral dissertation and the ATS accreditation for the University where you got your D.Min. That should only take you a matter of moments, right. I’m sure your dissertation is bound and on a shelf in your office. (And Charles, please note that CSCU isn’t on this list – perhaps its an oversite and you’ll want Dr. Kim to get that cleared up.)

While you are at it, since your Master’s is from the school your Dad started and where you are now President, perhaps you could share your Master’s Thesis with us – and introduce us to your faculty advisers. Committed Christian that you are, I’m sure you’d want to clear up any possible misconceptions.

UPDATE: Perhaps I should have titled this post, what’s a few degrees between friends. It would appear (via BD) that another prominent brother may have some issues with his academic qualifications. It will be interesting to see if anyone else investigates this and what the outcome is. (If the brother is found to be untruthful, should one reasonably expect him to step down from his recently granted position of authority.) The WaPo has picked up the story on their blog, On Faith.

UPDATE 2: What’s really funny is Bene D reminded me that I purchased a few websites when I was doing my research: californiastatechristianuniversity.com, .net and .org. They are available to the highest bidder – unless you’d like me to grant you a degree instead. The lineup starts to the right (of course).

UPDATE 3: Read Sonja’s comment and that of ToujoursDan who points to California State Christian University Canada’s website. One has to love the food shots for this site. Incredible. Click here to view a screen cap of the site’s page source that has this line in the meta: California State Christian University – Official Website - Official Website, really!?? (Note: This line is the title bar of the site.) Ownership of the site, normally available on a WhoIs search is hidden behind a Domain by Proxy registration. No transparency here. The Evangelical Order of Certified Pastoral Counsellors of America web registration is also hidden by Domain by Proxy registration as well. Not that I want to see a pattern here or anything. Oh. And BTW. Apparently, EOCPC can grant Doctorate Degrees according to Dr. George Madden’s bio on this page. Who knew?

You also might join a good friend of mine in finding the last name in the Faculty list as being somewhat disconcerting / amusing. Scroll to the very bottom for Dr. Young Girl Oh. Screen cap here.

Note ToujoursDan does a great job of following some of the same rabbit trails on his blog.

See this earlier post of mine that features McVety. See the post from Bene D that provoked today’s post here. See Mark Petersen’s post here. Any “Canadian media” reading this: let any of us know if you’d like some research training. We’d be more than happy to help. We can teach you all about “the Google.”

*The Hour is a CBC program that suggests what might happen in Canada if you mixed the DNA of Colbert and Stewart – and created a Stroumboulopoulos.

June 13, 2008
Used by permission of Bill Kinnon achievable ends.

What has happened since?

Charles McVety has not been as blindly referred to as Dr. McVety by Canadian media. He has not stopped calling himself Dr. at his college, his Canada Family Action Coalition website or at his Miracle Channel show. He has not stepped forward and produced proof of his academic qualifications.

Culture Choc found YaYa Canada made St. Petersburg connections (see the comment section).

California State Christian College has redesigned and updated their website in an attempt to re-brand. There has been a change of address, and new phone number. More international pictures are up, donation buttons a bit more discrete. Typos are corrected, the language is clearer about CCCU not being accredited.

The current featured alumni is a Canadian guy selling himself as Canada’s Life Coach and Mentor and hawking his wares; and under calendar a class is supposedly being offered in Toronto by Rhema Studies and Canada Christian College staff member Everald Lewis.

The library contact listed at the updated site winds up at William Carey International Institute. A different address. Sovereign Grace Church is also listed at the California State Christian University’s new address along with Vision University, which traced back to the EOAPC.
The Galloping Beaver has background in You got that degree where?

Spelling mistakes at the Canada Christian College website have been corrected, dates have been clarified and affiliations such as Liberty University and Oral Roberts University are listed.

Background blogs and more

YaYa Canada May 6, 2008 Degree or not degree?
Is Charlie McVety’s doctoral degree a cheap, Korean knock-off model? Yes, I think it is
absolute astronomy: Canada Christian College
An interesting aside – 10 years later Pr4′s sponsor Frank Klees is running for the leadership of Ontario Progressive Conservative Party.
Ontario Legislature Bil Pr4 1999. An Act respecting Canada Christian College and School of Graduate Theological Studies
Culture Choc: Chuck’s got some ‘slaining to do
Red Tory: Paging Dr. McVety
The Galloping Beaver: CBC, are you listening?
unrepentant old hippie: What’s up, “Doc?”
Canuck Attitude: So Many Right Wing Christians, So Few Lions Take 2
An interesting aside – 10 years later Pr4′s sponsor Frank Klees is running for the leadership of Ontario Progressive Conservative Party.
Bene Diction Blogs On: Dr. Charles McVety, Dr. Brian Rushfeldt: What’s a few degrees among friends?
Fun with Charles and no staffers get expelled
California State Christian University

USA
Ethics Daily: Hunt’s Biography Updated, Canadian Religious Leader Comes Under Criticism for Diploma Mill
Ethics Daily: Academic Credentials of Conservative Canadian Leaders Questioned

Definition of diploma mill

A diploma mill (also known as a degree mill) is an organization that awards academic degrees and diplomas with substandard or no academic study and without recognition by official educational accrediting bodies. The purchaser can then claim to hold an academic degree, and the organization is motivated by making a profit. These degrees are often awarded based on vaguely construed life experience. Some such organizations claim accreditation by non-recognized/unapproved accrediting bodies set up for the purposes of providing a veneer of authenticity.

Definition of honourary degree

An honorary degree [1] or a degree honoris causa (Latin: ‘for the sake of the honour’) is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived the usual requirements (such as matriculation, residence, study and the passing of examinations). The degree itself is typically a doctorate or, less commonly, a master’s degree, and may be awarded to someone who has no prior connection with the institution in question.

Usually the degree is conferred as a way of honoring a distinguished visitor’s contributions to a specific field, or to society in general. The university often derives benefits by association with the person in question.

Online reaction was swift. While reputable companies such as Ispos Reid polls indicated a majority of Canadians agreed with the decision, overnight an unknown company calling itself KRLVU Research disagreed, and began to be talked about on social conservative sites.  By July 22, 2008 Lifesite News announced that Campaign Life Coalition had discovered 55.8% of Canadians surveyed by KLRVU polling opposed Dr. Henry Morgentaler receiving the Order of Canada.

It quickly became apparent to bloggers who follow social conservative bloggers concerned with life and gender issues that the poll  had cut come from a fly by night company which cut and pasted a US survey form, and used a fully automated phone-polling system to gather opinion. One of the first bloggers to wonder if this new company was push polling (freeping) was  unrepentant old hippie.

Massive poll a massive scam?

Woohoo, we’re rollin’ in polls!

It’s been two weeks since polls done by Ipsos Reid and Angus Reid showed that 2/3 of Canadians support Dr. Morgentaler’s Order of Canada. I was expecting anti-choicers to respond before now with some negative poll results they were able to glean through a combination of subterfuge and sleaze. So when I saw them crowing about a Massive Poll out today that said “56% of Canadians oppose Morgentaler Order of Canada”, I thought “What took ya?”. Oh well, it’s summer for fetus fetishists too.

This latest poll was commissioned by “Campaign Life Coaltion”. It’s funny that when Canwest, a media chain with no agenda, commissions a poll, it comes out in favour; but when CLC, an anti-abortion group, commissions a poll, it gets the opposite results. Huh!? Indeed! Any poll about Morgentaler commissioned by an anti-abortion group lacks credibility for obvious reasons, and Birth Pangs takes the thing out to the woodshed here.

But never mind that, there are some other things bothering me about this poll. Although Campaign Life (who would never lie) says the question asked was a simple

“Do you believe abortionist Henry Morgentaler deserves the Order of Canada Press 1 for Yes Press 2 for No”

…we don’t know that, do we? And unlike the Ipsos-Reid and Angus Reid polls, there’s no way of checking it out. Why not? You’d think “KLRVU Polling”, the research company out of Winnipeg who did the poll, could clear it up in one quick phone call, and they probably could… if they had a phone.

The phone number for KLRVU Research belonged to a Winnipeg business called Lasercut Designs. Lasercut Designs was run by the brother and sister-in-law of  Winnipeg South Conservative MP Rod Bruinooge. Alan Bruinooge had run for Winnipeg City Council in 2005.

Bloggers began to take notice of the unrepentant old hippie research into KRLVU.

Creekside
BigCityLib
Birth Pangs  notes the tie in with Campaign Life Coalition (Canada) and Operation Rescue (US)

Part 2 Blogs investigate KLRVU Research