Bureaucrats chafing under 'unprecedented' PMO/PCO communications control

Tory political staff have seized almost total control of routine government communications and now require nearly all public comment to be pre-cleared by the Prime Minister's Office or the Privy Council Office, say some current and former communications bureaucrats and diplomats.

Though defenders say this sort of political vetting has always occurred, civil servants say the Tories have wrapped all government communications up in political red tape, radically reducing the amount of information disclosed to the public.

Despite its bland and inoffensive name, bureaucrats across Ottawa know well the intense communications control the Harper government has brought to bear though 'Message Event Proposals,' in particular.

"You say 'MEP' and the bureaucracy just cringes, because they can't stand these things called message event proposals," said one former communications official. "Basically what it is is micromanaging the message right down to the ground."

After a prolonged search, The Hill Times obtained an example of a MEP, a three-page document. An exhaustive document, the Message Event Proposal amounts to a sort of media shadow play that attempts to predict how information will play out in the press. It asks for a "desired headline" and "desired sound bite," "web highlight caption," "desired picture," "key questions and answers," and "official talking points." It also asks for details on event backdrops, props, speech length and tone, and attire of the speaker.

Many front line

'I'm shocked, it looks like I'm the villain here,' declares Jaffer

Transport Minister John Baird quietly designated Conservative MP Brian Jean as the government's exclusive gatekeeper to screen proposals for funding under the $1-billion Green Energy Fund, The Hill Times has learned.

But a review of the fund's government web page and news releases since the fund was established under the Tory economic action plan and since the first project was announced in May 2009 does not reveal any public statement about Mr. Jean's (Fort McMurray-Athabasca, Alta.) critical role.

Communications between Mr. Jean, Mr. Baird's Parliamentary secretary, and former Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer and his business partner, Patrick Glémaud, a former

Pervasive secrecy provokes wave of 'blowback' against Tories

The government was battered with blunt condemnations and prying questions about its refusal to release information to the public last week, after Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault released a scathing report on Canada's failing Access to Information system and as frustration boiled over on Parliament Hill.

An hour after Ms. Legault released her report, the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff Guy Giorno appeared before the House...

Source: The Hill Times

West Block to close in fall, Hill to have three new buildings by 2032

By 2032, the Hill will have three new aboveground and two underground Parliament Buildings, including the upcoming Pierre Elliott Trudeau Judicial Building, which is part of a massive 40-year and multi-billion-dollar project.

Though they admit the process is destined to irritate many Parliamentarians as key buildings are vacated, gutted and rebuilt, House of Commons architects say the 25-year revitalization project will be worth it in the end. Since 1992, it has cost $1-billion to restore the Parliament and so far $769-million to restore the West Block. In addition to preventing the buildings from quite literally falling apart and increasing

MP Guergis's reputation destroyed politically, say experts

Political and criminal law experts agree one thing is clear in the Conservative whodunnit that grips Ottawa: Simcoe-Grey, Ont., MP Helen Guergis has likely been destroyed politically and her reputation shredded, despite the absence so far of any trial, conviction, or even specific charges.

The machine-gun speed with which stunning allegations erupted over the past two weeks of alleged drug use by Ms. Guergis and her former-MP husband Rahim Jaffer, offshore bank accounts and sex play with "high class escorts" has prompted one of Canada's best-known political historians and a high-profile Toronto defence lawyer to accuse Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) of not just rushing to judgment, but rocketing there.

"I think she's been convicted without trial," University of Toronto political scientist Peter Russell told The Hill Times.

And—according to news accounts and documents unearthed in the scandal's stampede last week—the sentence was based on the word of an obscure and bankrupt private eye whose only previous claim to fame was a short-lived Toronto Star story about his plan to evade several thousand dollars worth of fines for unpaid parking tickets.

"There has been a very significant rush to judgment in this case," said Frank Addario, immediate past president of the Criminal Lawyers Association. "The whiff of scandal has got everyone overheated. Everyone's perspective on this needs to be tempered by an understanding that her side of the story has yet to be told. It may turn out that the allegations are wildly inaccurate or baseless, or rooted on a completely unreliable source, or constructed."

Ottawa pollster Nik Nanos agrees that whatever happens—even if Ms.

Justice, Military Police Complaints Commission secretly agree to reduce censored Afghan docs

The Justice Department has reached a secret agreement with the Military Police Complaints Commission to reduce the amount of censored information in government documents concerning allegations Afghan detainees may have been tortured after Canadian troops handed them over to Afghanistan's secret police.

The agreement stemmed from a Federal Court action the commission quietly launched late last year after months of wrangling with Justice...

Source: The Hill Times

Tories pushed for PM to fire Guergis

Senior Conservative Party commentators were virtually begging besieged Status of Women Minister Helena Guergis to quit Cabinet before Prime Minister Stephen Harper fired her and expelled her from Tory caucus last week.

But interviews with lifelong Conservatives in her rural Ontario riding of Simcoe-Grey, Ont., who abandoned Ms. Guergis before the last federal election—coupled with political finance records that show a dramatic plunge in local support—suggest her star had already fallen sharply at home before it exploded in such dramatic fashion in Ottawa.

The Toronto Star broke a story last week alleging that Ms. Guergis' husband, former longtime Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer, had shady business ties and potentially oversold himself to clients as having access to the PMO. The Star also reported that even though he lost his Edmonton seat in the 2008 election, he continued to hand out his MP business card and used Ms. Guergis' Parliamentary MP email account for personal business.

Prime Minister Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) announced last week his "office became aware of serious allegations regarding the conduct of" Ms. Guergis and he "referred the allegations to the conflict of interest and ethics commissioner and to the RCMP." Mr. Harper said, "These allegations relate to the conduct of Ms. Guergis and do not involve any other ministers, MPs, Senators or federal government employees." He said he would not comment further, but noted that Ms. Guergis resigned her junior Cabinet position, which he accepted, and that until the investigation into her conduct is resolved, she will not be sitting as a Conservative Member of Parliament. Mr. Harper said Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose

MPs' slim expense allowances not affected under budget freezes

A generous expense allowance MPs receive for travel between Ottawa and their ridings and for lodging during the 26 weeks they will spend in the capital this year escaped Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's budget axe.

A memo to MPs from party officers who sit on the top-secret Commons Board of Internal Economy that manages House of Commons budgeting informed them of a $382 hike in the allowance effective last Friday, on April 1.

The...

Source: The Hill Times

DND ordered Canadian Military Police to withhold information on detainees

Canadian Forces headquarters ordered Canadian Military Police in Kandahar to withhold information about detainees from the allied International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, an email among the 2,600 documents the government tabled in Parliament says.

The September 2006 email from diplomat Richard Colvin to the Canadian Embassy in Kabul and a string of recipients in every branch involved in the Canadian mission says an official with the International Security Assistance Force, which oversees troops from Canada, the U.S. and 24 other NATO countries battling the Taliban, raised concern about detainees.

Mr. Colvin sent the email after a series of

AG still wants to audit Parliament, MPs cool to it

Auditor General Sheila Fraser wants to conduct a value-for-money and performance audit of Parliament and she wants to take over from the private firm KPMG as Parliament's external auditor, but Parliamentarians across all parties seem to be frosty to the idea of handing over the books.

It costs $440-million to run the House of Commons and $93-million to run the Senate, and unlike federal departments and programs, which Ms. Fraser can...

Source: The Hill Times

Supreme Court Chief Justice McLachlin: embrace Canada's multiculturalism, nation

Canadians should embrace the country's multiculturalism as the country approaches its 150th anniversary in 2017, says Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin.

A number of the country's top thinkers gathered to share their visions on where Canada should be for its sesquicentennial. Organized by the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC) and MASSLBP—and has no relation to last weekend's Liberal-organized...

Source: The Hill Times