Dirty tricks

Bruce Anderson, a pollster and past Conservative strategist,  is apparently speaking for many people with one heck of an indictment over at The Globe's Second Reading website. 

He takes a cold, hard look at the Conservatives' admission of dirty tricks in Irwin Cotler's riding (see here for details) and offers some cold, hard truth: this is "insulting," "beneath the government" and "wrong at every level."  Particularly searingly, he says that anyone who regularly attends church or school is aware what's amiss here. 

That this episode risks disappearing under the waves of the next 50 news stories is not surprising. But the story deserves more oxygen, more time in the spotlight.

This truly isn’t complicated. If our children tell lies about schoolmates, we punish them not shrug it off. When it happens on the Internet, we call it cyber bullying and bemoan how young people seem to have grown up without decent values. Conservative Christian groups presumably recognize this as something hard to square with the “Golden Rule.”

When I last checked the story, it had garnered more than 1,000 comments, many of them urging us in the media to keep a spotlight on this story. Anderson, I should note, has every reason to believe that there will be a temptation to shrug and move on from this little episode. 

Earlier this year, two University of Ottawa academics went public with their concerns about being the targets of a dirty-tricks witchhunt, also a little Nixonian.

Tories accused of digging up dirt on ‘Liberal’ profs

 

In that instance, we got a categorical denial from the Conservative party and an official denial from the Prime Minister's Office. However, look what the PMO also appended to its denial: 

 Dimitri Soudas, communications director for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said “the PMO did not file these freedom of information requests,” though he added: “There’s nothing wrong with filing such requests, media and all Canadians can do it under the law”

There's the old freedom-of-speech thing again. As some of the commenters over at the Globe have noted, this is not the freedom that your relatives and mine have gone to war to protect. In fact, Canadians have had strong views in the past about states in which people are harassed because they're on the wrong side of power. (And I have a bit of a quibble with Soudas saying this request was legal -- actually, the information being sought went way beyond the bounds of what the law says can be disclosed. The law was written to prevent harassment such as this, in fact.) 

Attaran and Mendes fought back against their pursuer with a challenge -- they would release ALL information if the person identified himself/herself. I ran into Attaran at one of the many social events around the Hill last week and inquired whether the access pursuit had continued. He said they hadn't heard a word since they dared the access-requester to come forward. I guess we can conclude that this crusader for freedom of speech prefers to operate in the dark.

Anderson is right -- the best antidote for this behaviour is a spotlight. That's the media's job, for sure, but it also depends on the public demanding that transparency. 

 

Comments

[Bob Larocque]

Don't let this one die Susan.

[BC]

As I read Anderson's article, it seemed that what he was describing was sociopathic behaviour.

[Keith Meisenheimer]

" Dirty Tricks " fantastic title by the mass media ... please read a media condemnation of the practice :

" Cover up " has a nice snuggly sound as compared to bald faced lie ?

" The minister should apologize " is fair punishment for the tough on crime crowd ?

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/MacKay%2Byellow%2Btaxi/5808800/story.html

[Neil Watson]

Please keep this and all of the other ways the Harper government is debasing our democracy in the spotlight. And remember these events during the next campaign.

[Relayer]

Let's remember that Mendez is the same Liberal who said that the unelected bureaucracy had a duty to oppose the gov't if they disagreed with the direction gov't was taking.
Which skirts awfully close to treason, in my mind.

[robertjb]

Harper’s style of governance is ruthless and hardball. He is a political bully. Basic to bully psychology is that the more you give in the more aggressive and brazen this behaviour becomes. For this reason alone the opposition parties must be more vigilant than ever and be tenacious in holding this government to account. If the government of the day insists on playing ruthless hardball politics so too must the opposition. For this reason alone the Opposition parties must insist on MacKay’s resignation. Now is the time to send the government a message that if they take a hardline and abuse their mandate the Opposition will likewise take a hardline.

[Cyril Rogers]

In reference to Neil Watson's comments, I say that it is critical to maintaining some semblance of democracy that the bureauracracy do just that, when they know a politican is acting in an unethical, possibly illegal, manner. It need not necessarily become public knowledge unless they are threatened but we do need people on the inside to do what is right for all Canadians rather than kowtow to these tyrants. And tyrants they are, Mr. Watson! Why else would the PMO need 1500 communications people vetting every press release and other documents coming out of Ottawa? This is only one example of their need to control all communication but it highlights the level of paranoia within this administration.

If ever there was a time for the Liberal Party to renew itself and establish a new moral imperative, it is now. Past sins don't cut it any more and we need some integrity brought back to the system. It can be done but it takes political will and integrity, knowing that these changes can lead to your rise to power but also gives people the freedom to kick you out. So be it! We need to rediscover our sense of service to our country and that does not just include politicans but ALL of US.

[Ontario Voter]

Susan: When the National Post, and Kelly McParland, compares this to Watergate and the actions of Nixon, you know it is really bad as the former has been referred to by some (sarcastically) as the National Con-Post. McParland had this to say: "The Prime Minister should be ashamed of this low-grade duplicity, order it cancelled and fire whoever dreamed it up". Unfortunately, based on Harper's previous actions, I strongly suspect that Harper actually approved this disgusting affront of our democracy either directly, or indirectly, by closing one eye to what was happening. Unfortunately, this also followed from a whole series of disgusting actions: proroguing to escape a vote of no confidence, strong persistent denial that the Conservative party had done anything wrong in the In and Out affair, arrogant misuse of search and rescue helicopter (and then defending MacKay) and challenger jet to ferry Harper and his daughter to NHL game and then reimbursing taxpayers only a small fraction of the cost, etc. Therefore, it is really difficult to believe that Harper, well known for his microcontrol of things, really did not know, or approve, of what was happening. The opposition parties must get their acts together and aggresively inform the public of what is happening to our country under the Harper government.

[Janice]

Susan refuses every attempt in comments to show Attaran and Mendes official political donations history. It is public info after all ma'am.

[Cyril Rogers]

Mr. Watson, I may have mistaken your comment for the post below it and, if so, I wholeheartedly apologize.

I stand by my comments in reference to the idea of treason if bureaucrats call out sleazy politicans.

[Stephen MacLean]

Bravo! Simply bravo!

[Don McLeod]

Dr. Robert Hare in "Snakes in Suits" 1% of any population have no empathy. It is not their fault they are nasty. They must have some evolutionary function. They are not an indictment that humanity is innately nasty. Although when organizations with ideology and demands for deference for deference sake they prosper. One of the best examples of their usefulness is in this quote "It was interesting to hear the lies that the Special Detachment told them with such conviction, and to see the emphatic gestures with which they underlined them." Leo Strauss the father of the neo-cons thought religion would stop another Hitler from leading. He was wrong. It is ignorance of who are as a species. Most of us are nice, that is good for collaboration our advantage. But not good in famines. That is when liars come out as thugs and fear mongering types in it for the money flourish. It is my observation that Christian Conservative organizations are systemically flawed and vulnerable to empowering this 1%, our innate psychopaths.

[Anne Peterson]

It's up to the media to keep this alive. I can only keep it alive in my own head. This is only the last in a long line of dirty tricks and none should be forgotten. I have been wondering for a long time why the media always gives the conservatives a pass.

[Inge Jordan]

I am one member of the public who has demanded transparency since Day One of Harper's reign. Glad to feel I finally have some company.

[Steven Megannety]

For every Susan Delacourt, there are 50 vapid 'reporters' telling me what Kim and Paris are doing. Since we seem to care more about Lindsay Lohan then we do about the erosion of our civil society, we deserve what we get.