Twitter chat with @vfreedlander and @TonyclementCPC

Posted by Joanna Smith, Ottawa Bureau

This should have happened a lot sooner, but on Wednesday I got around to checking whether Vern Freedlander, the Toronto-based vice-president of production at X2O Media Inc. is on Twitter.

I am interested in learning more about (and talking to) Freedlander because while he was working for the Town of Huntsville, he sent this email to Huntsville Mayor Claude Doughty detailing an alleged conversation with Environment Minister Peter Kent.

It raised some pretty serious questions about the $45.7 million G8 legacy infrastructure funds and how the money was doled out. I wrote a story about that on Monday. Environment Minister Peter Kent told me on Tuesday that the conversation the email describes never took place.

It turns out that yes, Freedlander (@vfreedlander) is on Twitter.

When I found his account, he had 14 followers (after I tweeted about it, he gained some new ones).

One of them was Treasury Board President Tony Clement (@TonyclementCPC). Now, it should be noted that Clement, who is pretty active on Twitter, follows more than 17,000 people. Still, the reason this follow-back is remotely relevant is that when Clement was industry minister, he passed along Freedlander's name to Doughty about the G8-related job he ended up getting.

It turns out that Freedlander has tweeted at Clement a few times. It appears, as far as what I can tell from the easily accessible Tiwtter archives, that the conversation was one-way.

For example, on June 19, Clement joked about something that happened to him on Father's Day and Freedlander wrote back.

On June 18, Clement tweeted a link to a statement by Bruce Springsteen on the death of Clarence Clemons and Freedlander replied the next day calling Clemons the "Minister of Soul".

Clement's timeline only stretches back to June 2011. This means it is not immediately possible for me to know whether Clement responded to any of these earlier tweets from Freedlander.

In any case, here is some more.

February 11:

Clement tweeted:

Soon to be in Huntsville, to tape my monthly Cogeco cable access show. Party on, excellent.

Freedlander replied:

@TonyClement_MP Stan Mikita stopping by?

December 8, 2010:

@vfreedlander Vern Freedlander

@TonyClement_MP: Great to hear you're at LM. LM r clients of ours. X2O Media provides them with in-house communication software. Best, Vern

December 3, 2010:

Clement tweeted:

TonyclementCPC Tony Clement

Saw them live back in the day:awesome! RT @stephenfgordon If only TheDemics cld have lasted longer than they did http://youtu.be/KrPOKNU5Ds4

Freedlander replied:

@vfreedlander Vern Freedlander

@TonyClement_MP Speaking of musical anniversaries 30th Darkness on the Edge of Town great album great tour. Best Bruce ever!

November 27, 2010:

Clement tweeted:

TonyclementCPC Tony Clement

Hello out there! Here's a twitpic of the winter wonderland outside my study window this morning... http://yfrog.com/g945uj

Freedlander replied:

@TonyClement_MP Hi Tony, a wonderful winter scene and I am quite impressed with the wood work around the window! Cheers Vern

And that's all they wrote.

It looks like the tweet above was Freedlander's very first. He joined Twitter on April 19, 2009, but his first tweet (out of 39 so far) was that "wonderful winter scene" message on Nov. 29 of the following year -- to Clement.

What's it called again? Oh, right. The UN.

One of the ways the opposition parties and other critics like to go after federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq is to decry her absence (if she is in fact absent) from whatever health-related conference is going on at the time.

On Thursday it was New Democrat Quebec MP Anne Minh-Thu Quach (Beauharnois—Salaberry), who asked during Question Period in the House of Commons why Aglukkaq was not attending the World Health Organization's three-day World Conference on Social Determinants of Health in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (N.B. Chief Public Health Office Dr. David Butler-Jones is actually attending on her behalf).

Here is my translation (from French) of an excerpt of Quach's question:

"The World Health Organization recognizes that social inequalities lead to inequities when it comes to health. The costs are astronomical.

Can the Minister of Health explain to us why she is not participating in this international meeting?"

According to the "Blues", which is the quick transcript of what happened during Question Period emailed to the Parliamentary Press Gallery and others a couple of hours after it happens, Aglukkaq responded with the following:

"Mr. Speaker, we do participate in a number of conferences internationally. Most recently, we were at a conference in New York, at the United Nations, on the declaration around poverty reduction initiatives across countries.

The government has worked hard to protect and promote the health and safety of all Canadians who make huge investments internationally, as well as here in Canada."

What the transcript does not show is that it took Aglukkaq a few seconds to remember the name of that international body that hosted that conference she was at in New York last month. Aglukkaq said the name of the city but then stumbled for a few moments before looking down at her notes and remembering: "the United Nations".

A postscript to: CPC vs "soft-on-crime-coalition"

-Updated by Tonda MacCharles, Oct. 11/2011

Delayed posting this update, but thought it important to point out the CPC isn't the only one availing of political posturing opportunities in the members' statements. On Friday, the morning after I posted Brent Rathgeber's comments (see below), the Liberals' rookie MP for Kingston and the Islands Ted Hsu gloated about the Ontario Liberals' win in the provincial election, citing Prime Minister Stephen Harper's summertime wish for a trifecta of Conservative victories in Ontario. "Mr. Speaker, the Trifecta was Rejecta," Hsu rejoiced. He concluded: "The Liberal movement is alive and well in Ontario."

Well, then. I guess the Liberals won't be complaining about the Tories' use of partisan trash talk anymore. Let's see how long the NDP can keep a civil tongue in their heads.

 

-posted by Tonda MacCharles, Ottawa bureau, Oct. 6, 2011

The 15 minutes before Question Period are devoted to statements by MPs who once upon a time used to talk about significant events or people in their ridings or hail volunteerism or fundraising efforts like the March of Dimes. Over the past several years, the statements began to be used, primarily by Conservative Party MPs, as occasions for partisan attacks.

There's been some lip service paid to trying to foster more "civility" in politics. After the Conservatives won a majority government in May, many talked about how it would change the hyper-partisan atmosphere in the House of Commons. Certainly after NDP leader Jack Layton died in August you heard lots of talk about how politicians would heed his call for a more respectful discourse.

But old habits die hard, I guess.

Today's statement by Conservative Brent Rathgeber (Edmonton—St. Albert) - one of three Conservative MPs involved in screening the next two judges (still unnamed) for the Supreme Court of Canada - took a hard partisan swipe, but this time he broadened his target. 

Here's a bit of what Rathgeber said:

"We reject categorically suggestions from the NDP and their soft-on-crime friends like the Elizabeth Fry Society who suggest: providing prisoners with needles and drugs in order to engage in harm reduction; taking drugs away from prisoners violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms; drug interdiction methods are unfair to inmates by violating their “privacy” and drug sniffing dogs can scare away visitors; and, most shockingly of all, strip searches of inmates suspected of smuggling drugs or weapons is tantamount to “lawful sexual assault by the state." Yesterday the member for Sackville—Eastern Shore demanded that I apologize for allegedly wronging this criminal group. I suggest that the NDP should apologize to Canadians for its complicity in the soft-on-crime coalition and for refusing to stand up for victims. I call--"

At that point, the Speaker called time had run out.

That's a shame. I'd like to know who else, besides the people who advocate for women prisoners across Canada, is in the soft-on-crime coalition.

Perhaps we'll hear more in the days to come.

-30-