Truly scandalous

Paul Wells is right to note where the more fundamental scandal lies in the Cons' handling of the desperate need to make clean water available to Canada's First Nations. But it's well worth noting that there's a more recent set of equally problematic developments, as hinted at by the Globe and Mail's coverage:

First nations leaders were allegedly being warned by the promoters of the H2O Pro system that new legislation before the Senate will require them to meet stringent drinking water standards but will provide no resources to do so.

Lest there be any doubt, that message wasn't simply a matter of the system's promoters making something up that wasn't already known to the First Nations involved. In fact, Shawn Atleo raised exactly the same criticism of the bill at the time - so it's only the failings of the Harper Cons to back up new rules with matching resources that made the pitch even remotely plausible.

Which leads to this...

The communities were allegedly told that government connections could be used to find money for the equipment and training if they purchased the systems.

And that's where the Carson scandal most clearly highlights the ultimate problem with the Harper government.

If the party in charge of allocating funding hadn't spent the last five years looking for more and more blatant ways to direct public funds for political benefit, or if anybody bought that the Cons would deal with anybody honestly or transparently, then a sales pitch based solely on political connections rather than merit would have been laughed out of the communities involved and immediately exposed. But given the Cons' actions while in office, the concept looks to have been taken fairly seriously - and until APTN broke the story nationally, the communities themselves seem to have been scared enough of reprisals to avoid saying anything publicly.

So the real problem underlying the Carson story is that the Harper Cons have been so thoroughly unresponsive to First Nation needs as to create the opportunity for Carson - and so thoroughly motivated by politics in doling out benefits that nobody seems to have entirely doubted the claim that privileged access to public money might be available if the right people were able to take a cut. And the fact that this particular scheme was eventually sniffed out (with no substantial help from the Harper government) doesn't mean anybody else has reason to think otherwise.