Tag Archives: Ethics Commissioner

Roundup: AG highlights and denials

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It was the Auditor General’s fall report yesterday, and as expected he gave a pretty damning indictment of the veterans mental health programme, citing that some 20 percent of veterans can wait over eight months for disability support. The government, naturally, found the one line in the report that made it sound like they were doing a good job overall and repeated it over and over again, as though that would make it true. Other gems included $15 million spent on a digital records storage system at Library and Archives, which was later scrapped with no documented rationale (the video clip is in response to my questions in the press conference), a lack of follow-up on the Nutrition North programme to ensure that the subsidies were being passed onto consumers, a lack of cooperation meaning RCMP aren’t getting data on Canadians who offend abroad, and there was a lack of adequate data to assess the auto bailouts from 2008. And then there was Julian Fantino (or likely the staffer monitoring his Twitter account, as I suspect his duotronic circuits can’t handle the feed) trying to get one over Mercedes Stephenson, who was having none of it.

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Roundup: Partisan government tweets

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The government continues their questionable communications strategies, as they are now asking federal departments to tweet favourable messages about the government’s new “family tax cut” programmes using hashtags like #StrongFamilies. You know, a slogan that Harper debuted at a party event back in the summer. And these tax measures? Not actually adopted by Parliament yet, so advertising about them is premature (not that it stopped them with the Canada Job Grant, and they’re doing TV ads already on the basis of these unapproved tax measures). Despite what Tony Clement will tell you about how this is important messaging from the government to let people know about their new programmes, it all smacks of partisan advertising – just like those terrible marijuana ads that use torqued and demonstrably false claims (like 400 percent stronger marijuana). Getting public servants to start bombarding social media with these kinds of partisan messages further degrades the neutrality of the civil service, and shows the government to be treating it as their own personal ad agency, which they should not be doing.

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Roundup: Sanctions as a badge of honour

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The Russian government has retaliated against sanctions imposed by Canada by instituting sanctions of their own against 13 Canadian officials, including the Clerk of the Privy Council, the deputy secretary to cabinet in the Privy Council, Speaker Scheer, Peter Van Loan, Senator Raynell Andreychuk, and MPs Dean Allison, Paul Dewar, Irwin Cotler, Ted Opitz, Chrystia Freeland and James Bezan, all of whom consider it a “badge of honour.” Notably absent were John Baird and Stephen Harper, which signals that there is still room for negotiation. Irwin Cotler wrote his response about how he was first banned from the Soviet Union in 1979, and that he was poisoned on his last trip to Moscow in 2006. Meanwhile, the G8 is essentially no more, as Russia has expelled after their invasion of Crimea. The G7 is now resurrected in its place.

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Roundup: Procurement and protectionism

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A couple of different reports on military procurement came out yesterday. One of them, from the Commons public accounts committee, which looked into the F-35 procurement reports by the Auditor General and PBO, completely watered down the findings so as to tone down the criticism of the government’s handling of the file. So, good job there in holding the executive to account, government backbenchers! Meanwhile, an independent panel report recommended that Canadian companies take the lead with building from scratch or taking the major role with follow-on support contracts for the various military procurements being undertaken, though Rona Ambrose noted during QP that the government was better suited to be a customer of Canadian industries than a subsidizer, so take that for what you will.

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Roundup: Blocking the Auditor General

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The House of Commons (as its own entity rather than its occupants) is taking the Auditor General to Federal Court to block an Access to Information request around his correspondence for his committee appearances. The House says this is about parliamentary privilege, and the AG says that privilege doesn’t extend to his office. Kady O’Malley delves further into this, but it does seem unlikely that the Courts could even weigh in on this, and there is also that wee little fact that Parliament is a court in and of itself. Both the PMO and the Liberals say that they’re willing to waive privilege in this case. It was later revealed that the NDP were the originators of said ATIP request, which just makes this all the more curious.

Iran has responded to our embassy closures, and calls it “unwise, uncivilised, and hostile.” Brian Stewart looks at some of the possible intelligence that may have prompted the pullout, and wonders if it wasn’t threats on Canadian soil that they were more concerned with. The ousted Iranian charé d’affairs insists that they did nothing wrong. Meanwhile, Thomas Mulcair seems to be distancing himself from some of Paul Dewar’s comments regarding the embassy closures.

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Roundup: Additional reporting powers requested

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Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson says that politicians are honest, but when the Act comes up for review she wants additional powers, especially when it comes to MPs reporting gifts.

What’s that? The government may be rigging sole-source contracts? You don’t say!

In light of Senator Fairbairn’s dementia and Rob Ford’s hospitalisation, we ask ourselves once again if we give Canadian politicians too much privacy, and where do we draw that line?

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Roundup: A visit from Merkel

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel is in town to meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to talk trade, security, and the Eurozone crisis. Later today she’ll be off to Halifax to talk with scientists.

Now that the media has done his due diligence for him, John Baird has announced that the government won’t be funnelling aid money to Syrian rebels through that dubious organisation after all. This isn’t the first time either – during the Libya mission, I heard from Foreign Affairs staff that Baird was looking to turn over millions of dollars to rebel groups there without any due diligence then either until he was talked out of it by cooler heads.

The CBC also takes a look into the delays around finding a new Chief of Defence Staff, and throws a couple of other names on the table. Peter MacKay says the pick will be announced in the “very near future.”

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Roundup: Support through cuts

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The government is showing continued support for the federal Youth Justice Services Funding Programme by slashing its funding by twenty percent. Also, the chocolate ration was increased from 30 grammes to 25. Doubleplusgood!

The Ethics Commissioner wants stricter guidelines when it comes to reporting the gifts that MPs receive – and the power to fine those that don’t report them.

In light of the Brazeau incident, Senator LeBreton is suggesting that the Senate’s attendance rules be reviewed.

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