Documents show ‘harperization’ of government communications

"Federal public servants were trying to understand the wholesale “harperization” of Government of Canada communications six months before a spokesman for the prime minister emphatically denied any change in policy or practice.

New documents obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act directly contradict published claims by Stephen Harper’s chief spokesman that bureaucrats have not been directed to replace the words Government of Canada with “Harper Government” in departmental news releases and backgrounders.

Top former civil servants say the wording change marks a disturbing new trend in the politicization of the bureaucracy – and breaches both communications policy and the civil service ethics policy.

Insiders say ongoing editing skirmishes continue between some government departments with strong leadership and the Privy Council Office, the bureaucracy known as PCO that serves the prime minister.

Industry Canada took nearly nine months to deliver documents based on the access request, ignoring statutory deadlines for releasing the records. The Information Commissioner deemed a complaint by The Canadian Press about the delay to be well-founded, determining the department had refused to provide access under the Act.

The “deemed refusal” appears profoundly political, given the contents.

Industry Canada’s e-mails and edited releases from autumn 2010 make a mockery of Conservative government denials offered when The Canadian Press first published reports of the name-change orders last March.

“The directive we have from the (director general’s office) is that if PCO adds the Harper Government reference, then we leave it in,” says an e-mail to communications officials at Industry, dated Oct. 5, 2010. “Please proceed with this approach. Sorry – it is what PCO has instructed.”

An editor responded: “Given this directive, and with mild distress, I have reinstalled the phrasing.”

“French release harperized and good to go,” quipped another.

Civil servants were clearly alarmed by the change in nomenclature as far back as late September 2010.

“‘Harper Government’ is not in line with the Communications Policy of the Government of Canada, so I have modified it,” wrote a member of Industry Canada’s communications branch after PCO sent back an altered release.

“Please see Chris Fox to make sure we are actually adding ‘Harper Government’ to the release,” wrote another. “This is not appropriate language, in my opinion.”

“We understand that Harper Government will not be used by Editorial,” wrote yet another public servant at the time. “It has been requested of us by PCO, however.”

When the change in nomenclature was revealed last March, Mr. Harper’s chief spokesman at the time, Dimitri Soudas, wrote to Canadian newspapers asserting “no directive” went out to civil servants. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” he declared.

Mr. Soudas, who has since left the PMO to become executive director of communications for the Canadian Olympic Association, also called the revelations by The Canadian Press the stuff of “black helicopters and conspiracy theories.”

Stockwell Day, then the Treasury Board president, told the House of Commons “there has been no change of policy or practice.”

Despite scores of pages of internal e-mails about the orders from several different departments, the PMO continues to maintain the enforced name-change didn’t happen.

“Dimitri’s comments from March stand,” Andrew MacDougall, Harper’s associate director of communications, said late Monday.

He noted Industry Canada’s website currently includes plenty of “Government of Canada” usages.

“As for the term ‘Harper Government”, as we’ve said many times, this has been long-standing practice across various governments,” Mr. MacDougall continued in an e-mail. “This terminology is widely used by journalists and the public.”

Yet more than a year ago, on Oct. 22, 2010, an Industry public servant noted in writing that “as per our directive from PCO, I have left in the phrase ‘Harper Government.”‘ Another editor further up the chain repeated the same caveat, word-for-word – “as per our directive from PCO” – in clearing the changes.

Why the ostensibly non-partisan Privy Council would undertake such a controversial change in communications policy, if not on directions from the prime minister, remains a mystery.

The Prime Minister’s Office has simply ignored for months repeated inquiries about the motivation for the shift in language.

Jonathan Rose, an expert in political communication at Queen’s University, suggests it’s a partisan branding exercise designed to “encourage a subtle shift to occur where the government of Canada is equated with a particular party or leader.”

“It allows for a more seamless connection between the neutral machinery of the state and the partisan interests of those in government,” said Mr. Rose.

Canadians should take note, he said.

“The public service is correctly asking questions, as there does not seem to be a clear policy rationale for neutral public servants to do the partisan bidding of a government,” said Mr. Rose.

On Sept. 30, 2010, a Privy Council official wrote he was “waiting to hear back from my friends next door,” when asked by Industry about editing changes that added “Harper Government” to a news release.

“My counterparts next door have requested a change to the headline (below),” the official responded soon after, above a “Harper Government” headline.

Others within government were also wondering where and why the change was being ordered.

An official with the Networks of Centres of Excellence, a research granting agency that deals with business, academic and not-for-profit organizations, sent an e-mail to Industry’s communications group last December: “Is there an official policy change that now allows for changes such as Harper Government. I may need an official explanation for our partners.”

The communications official kicked the request up to Shannon Cassidy, a manager in public affairs and “ministerial services” at Industry.

“Did you ever get any rationale from PCO or anyone on this?” asked the official.

No response to the e-mail was included in the Access to Information package.

There is still none to this day." - Bruce Cheadle and Jennifer Ditchburn, The Canadian Press on The Globe and Mail.

"I'll show you mine if you show me yours": NDP want to see Harper's Office Staff salaries and expenses

"The New Democrats are countering a request by a Conservative MP to see the salaries of top CBC on-air personalities by asking for the same level of disclosure of pay for senior staff in the Prime Minister’s Office, including chief of staff Nigel Wright and communications director Angelo Persichilli.

Conservative Brent Rathgeber last week tabled an order paper question calling on the public broadcaster to reveal how much it pays anchor Peter Mansbridge and comedian Rick Mercer, as well as produce a list of all CBC staff making more than $100,000 annually. The CBC might have an out via the Broadcast Act and it is uncertain whether it will be required to comply with the request.

But it’s hard to see how the Prime Minister’s Office can dodge the NDP’s request to produce the salaries and benefits paid to, among others, former directors of communications Dimitri Soudas, now with the Canadian Olympic Committee, and Kory Teneycke, who now helps run Sun News Network.  The request also asks for hospitality and travel expenses.

The employees named are “exempt staff,” whose salaries are supposed to be pegged to the pay ranges for equivalent positions in the public service. Where exactly they land in those ranges is not known.

In one of three order paper questions tabled Monday byMP Tyrone Benskin , the NDP asks for:

Mr. Benskin (Jeanne-Le Ber) – With Regard to the Prime Minister’s Office and its current and former employment of Bruce Carson, Dimitri Soudas, Sandra Buckler, Guy Giorno, Nigel Wright, Ian Brodie, Ray Novak, Andrew McDougall, Kory Teneycke, Alykhan Velshi and Angelo Persichilli: (a) what were/are the employment agreements with each of these individuals in terms of (i) salary, (ii) vehicle allowance or provision of car and/or driver, (iii) expense account for food, drink, alcohol and hospitality, (iv) out-of-town accommodations for the individual; (b) in each of the years between 2000 and 2011, how much did each of these individuals expense for (i) food, (ii) travel, (iii) hotels, (iv) hospitality, (v) drink, (vi) vehicle use; (c) what were the itemized amounts and descriptions of each individual’s individual expenses as identified in the answers to (b); and (d) if the PMO provides any of these individuals with a vehicle for his use, as identified in the answers to (a)(ii), broken down by individual, (i) what is the model and make of the car, (ii) how much does this benefit cost the PMO on an annual basis?

Just as Rathbeger asked for a list of CBC employees making more than $100,000 a year, the NDP is also calling for the same from PMO and other ministers’ offices.

And in language nearly identical to one of Rathbeger’s order paper questions for hospitality expenses from overseas CBC bureaus, the NDP wants the same accounting for PMO and other ministerial staff expenses claimed for hospitality, food, drinks, hotels and transportation in Rome, London, Washington, Paris and Boston.

The government will have 45 days to answer the questions." - Glenn McGregor, The Ottawa Citizen. 

Une jeune adolescente aspergée d'essence provenant de bouteilles de bière.

"QUÉBEC – Horrible histoire à Saguenay où trois gamins âgés de 12 à 14 ans ont été arrêtés par la police. Ils sont suspectés d’avoir tenté de mettre le feu à une jeune fille de 12 ans.

L’incident s’est produit vendredi soir, vers 20 h, dans un secteur résidentiel de Jonquière, sur la rue Rembrandt. La jeune fille, qui serait une connaissance des présumés agresseurs, aurait été avec ceux-ci en début de soirée à la résidence d’un des trois garçons.

Elle aurait ensuite quitté les lieux avant d’être invitée à revenir. Selon nos informations, les jeunes à l’intérieur de la maison se seraient moqués de la jeune fille, durant un bon bout de temps, pendant qu’elle attendait devant la porte de la résidence. Les trois garçons, qui étaient accompagnés de deux autres jeunes filles, à l’intérieur, auraient par la suite aspergé la présumée victime à l’aide d’une bouteille de bière, a raconté le lieutenant André Gagné.

Odeur d’essence

Ce dernier a fait savoir que dans son témoignage aux policiers, la jeune fille a raconté qu’elle avait rapidement réalisé, par l’odeur, que ce n’était pas de la bière, mais bien de l’essence qui se versait de la bouteille. Cette information n’a toutefois pas pu être confirmée par le lieutenant, qui a mentionné que les policiers «ont tout de même de bons motifs pour croire qu’il s’agissait d’essence».

Il a aussi indiqué que des témoignages ont permis d’apprendre que les trois jeunes auraient brandi un briquet devant la jeune fille. Aucun projectile enflammé n’a toutefois été lancé à celle-ci, a-t-il ajouté.

Les circonstances et les témoignages ne permettaient pas au lieutenant de confirmer si les jeunes avaient eu l’intention de mettre feu à la jeune fille, ou s’ils voulaient plutôt lui faire peur. Peu importe l’intention des jeunes, selon le lieutenant Gagné, «ça reste un geste d’imbécillité».

La jeune fille s’est ensuite sauvée et a tenté de se cacher, pendant que les jeunes auraient brièvement essayé de continuer de l’asperger. Elle est finalement parvenue à prendre ses distances et à rejoindre ses parents par téléphone, qui ont porté plainte aux policiers, a ajouté le lieutenant.

Accusations?

Les trois jeunes ont été arrêtés et ont été libérés sous promesse de se présenter devant le tribunal de la jeunesse après les fêtes. La police a confirmé qu’ils pourraient faire face à des accusations de voies de fait armées contre la jeune fille.

Le bureau des enquêtes criminelles travaillera en collaboration avec la Direction de la protection de la jeunesse.

La jeune fille n’a pas subi de blessures. Il a été impossible de savoir si des adultes étaient à l’intérieur de la résidence où a débuté l’incident." - Jean-Nicolas Blanchet, Le Journal de Montreal.

Que se passe-t-il au Canada? Des choses bien épeurantes se passes dernièrement chez les "pré-adolescents"... 

Ces jeunes hommes on clairement planifié leur coups, reste à voir ce que la cour va dire.