Mixed amid comments on various sites where readers agree that asking for a public inquiry on the Afghan detainee issue amounts to attacking the troops are complaints that this story is getting old, and we should move on.
Sad comments, those, suggesting that news should be for entertainment, not information.
There are many serious aspects to the detainee issue, but in this post, I’m going to focus on the importance of an independent public service, something I’ve written of before because it lies at the heart of our democracy.
Kathryn May came out with an article in which she quotes law professor Errol Mendes and political scientist, Donald Lavoie. Both see the current attacks on Colvin as another sign of a rapidly eroding independent public service. They explain why this is occurring, and why it threatens our democratic way of life.
Mendes...said...”There is a growing crisis here beyond what happened to detainees in the 2006-2007 period. ... We are seeing the dismantling of Canada's independent public service," he said. "This is a cornerstone underpinning our institutions and if we don't have a public service that speaks truth to power, we might as well have everything run out of the Prime Minister's Office."
Do any of us, no matter how partisan, think that would be good for Canadians? All decisions made by the PMO? All information distributed by whatever government is in place? We would be prisoners of whatever ideology and interests the ruling party of the day maintains. Recipe for corruption.
Why is this happening?
"Let's stop pretending the old rules still apply and we should be playing by the same rules when we have public servants not only being publicly attacked, but turning their guns on each other. If that's what we want, then we will have an even more cautious public service that won't take notes, keep records or speak out," said (Donald Savoie, the University of Moncton political scientist).
We have seen several examples of this over the past three years: Linda Keen publicly attacked and sacked for doing her job; Kingsley gone after pressing for investigations into CPC election funding practices; Marc Mayrand attacked for questioning those practices; Measner booted of the Wheat Board for not wanting to gut its policies; recently, watchdogs Tinsley and Kennedy axed.
As one senior official said this notion of "blaming the bureaucrat" is becoming normalized and supplanting ministerial responsibility so bureaucrats end up carrying the can for problems that belong to government.
We end up with a system where the public servants who are supposed to be working for us are too afraid to live up to their mandates or speak of wrongdoing and government corruption and interference. Who then will tell us when contracts are passed over to friends of politicians at inflated costs and who will tell us when agencies such as Atomic Energy Canada cut corners and put us all at risk? Politicians need donations to run an election campaign, and grateful companies are terrific sources of such funding. The payback to them comes in legislation tailor-made to help them turn a buck, often at the expense and to the detriment of the general public.
I am not as convinced as Savoie and Mendes, however, that the public service will comply out of fear until it is no longer independent. Contrary to what some people believe, most public servants are decent people who really want to be able to sleep with a clear conscience when they get home. They want to look their kids in the eye when they talk about their jobs and when they teach those kids values to live by.
When someone like Keen takes on the monsters, consciences are tweaked. When someone like Colvin follows, those consciences are working overtime. It is difficult to watch Colvin battered day after day when there is no apparent gain for him in holding to his claims - and he cuts a fine image - a caring, humble man against the bravado of the Harper government and its hand-picked witnesses. He reminds us that we all have a social responsibility to make our democracy work, to keep it fair and honest.
Recently, leaks came out of the PCO concerning government interference. Other public servants - anonymously for now - have been talking as well.
It is difficult for many public servants, I am told, to go to work day after day and be forced to bury items that should be posted for the public, and to whitewash reports and write partisan products. They read the fine words in their mandates: transparency, excellent public service, welfare of the public, and it digs away at them when they are told to violate these principles.
In addition to the blows from their own conscience, many are aware that when the feces flies, it is not their political masters who will take the fall, but them. They have several examples to give them little doubt of this: Keen, Colvin, Gualtieri, Measner...
So if the wave set in place by those responsible public servants who wouldn`t bend to political pressure lately and added to these past weeks by Colvin is kept in motion, we could see the public service get up, stretch, shake itself and say :enough, we are better than that.
People rebel against injustice if pushed hard enough, and principles run strong in many folks. Personally, I don`t think the public service will meekly bow to the political yoke, but it needs the support and understanding of the public it serves. That is us. Not all public servants carry guns in their jobs, and not all face death or physical injury, but they serve none the less and sometimes they risk their jobs to serve us properly.
That is why it is important to support those who want to give testimony but face the opposition of a government with vested interests in having the truth hidden.
An aside - pretty impressive work by Rae in the House today as the NDP motion for a public enquiry was debated. When attacked by a Conservative who mentioned that there is no problem, but if there is, it was the Liberals who caused it since they set up the transfers when in power, Rae said yes, that is what he is saying - this is not a partisan issue but a human rights one, a question of transparency and of Canada not engaging in or continuing to engage in violations of the conventions. He said that he expects the Liberal party involvement to be scrutinized as well, and wants that.
That, my fellow Canadians, is a good politician, there for the electorate.
Monday Afternoon Links
9 hours ago
8 comments:
Not sure if you caught this while you were away, but here's another example of public servants doing their jobs to add to your list:
Gender Equality, Child Soldiers and Humanitarian Law are Axed from Foreign Policy Language
and
Leaked DFAIT Memo Documents Struggle Between Conservative Political Staff and Foreign Service
Odd really that Colvin is referred to as a whistleblower. He sent in his reports, he indicated his intent to appear before the MPCC when subpoenaed, he appeared before the AFGH committee when summoned and gave evidence. No pressers - just doing his job.
That's what I have been trying to tell people who "support the troops". If you really want to support the troops, you will ensure that they are not put into the position where they are knowingly in breach of the Geneva Convention. Next, the powers that be will throw THEM at the Tribunals as they have Mr. Colvin and Co.
This is serious shit! Add to that, Amy Goodman's (Democracy Now!) experience at the Douglas border crossing last week on her way to a book launch. Crazy.
900 ft Jesus,
Good to see you back, and given the thrust of this post, back in fine form.
I caught Rae's bit today and I could not agree with you more. Pity that too many of our MP's are unwilling to speak with such clarity to the importance of upholding basic fundamental values without regard for their party affiliations. Even a Tory critic like myself finds it hard to believe that there is not ONE, not ONE single solitary Tory MP who does not know, deep in her or his own heart, that what we are faced with here is an issue that transcends partisan politics and speaks to who we, as Canadians, are as a people. And, as such, the allegations deserve to have a thorough, unbiased, and objective panel determine if there is any merit to the seemingly credible accusations. Anything less will prove that our polity has fallen prey to the kind of partisan puppetry more reflective of a Banana Republic than a 1st world democracy!
Again, welcome back.
Mr. Colvin was doing his job. The soldiers need to be supported to do theirs within the bounds of the Geneva Conventions. The Harper government has been derilect on this, as well as most other files. I caught Bob Rae debating the motion. We need, as a nation, people like him making us proud again. LK
thanks, Alison. I have some friends in DFAIT. They are very unhappy about what they are being told to do. Hopefully, some will speak up but they need to know it will go somewhere and that they won't be left out there on their own fighting a pointless battle.
Right, Kim, but the CONs, like the Repugs want to keep the blind partisan slant - such a powerful tool.
Hi Fat Arse! (man I still have trouble writing that name in connection with you)
KL and FA - Too bad Rae still makes too much of a target having been NDP premier after the mess Davis left him with. I don't see that as a negative, but the CONs paint it that way and some people buy it.
"We end up with a system where the public servants who are supposed to be working for us are too afraid to live up to their mandates or speak of wrongdoing and government corruption and interference."
That's why politicizing public service constitutes a huge payoff for (incompetent) politicos and paries - it ensures a "leveling down" to incompetence so that the party/politicos in power can rest easy from the fear of being caught ... being incompetents.
This *is* the First Principle of Incompetence in action, you know ...
It's also why Rove, Bush and Co. wrote the playbook on politicizing public service¸.
do you think our public service will fight back, Mentarch?
When folks are afraid *for* their jobs, the default setting is tp sit tight, cower and stay under the radar at all costs - unfortunately enough.
Post a Comment