Oh...wait...
The farewell, which nearly 200 communication personnel from various departments were forced to attend was for...Dimitri Soudas?
What? Couldn’t he Facebook enough of his own friends to attend voluntarily?
The article is in French,
but the gist of it is –
nearly 200 high level public servants were forced to go to a farewell party for Soudas. They were lead to believe that the “meeting” had to do with communications in the federal government. Many thought it would have to do with cuts to departments.
The order of the day was not specified and the notice was sent by the PCO to high level communication managers in all ministries, assistant deputy ministers, and DGs. Each invitee could bring up to five senior members of their team.
The meeting consisted of what has been described as a completely useless, very general talk given by Jonathan Massey-Smith, head of PCO Comm. Half way through the meeting, Massey-Smith and his assistant delivered a long eulogy on Soudas and gave him a gift. Then, further torture ensued as the captive audience had to endure another lengthy speech, this time given by Soudas.
Apparently, the invitees could not leave the farewell bit because i twas part of the whole meeting. Some public servants wanted to leave, feeling uncomfortable because of the way they were forced to attend an obviously partisan event, but didn’t dare.
Donald Savoie, author of several books on public administration said it’s the first time he has heard of this being done, adding that while it is essential that public servants work with political employees, neutrality in the public service must be preserved. It must remain non-partisan by keeping the lines between politics and public service very distinct. By not informing the public servants what the event involved was, Savoie said, brazen.
No kidding. It removed the public servants’ right – and responsibility – to decide it this is a function they should attend, and whether or not it crossed that neutrality line they must maintain.
3 comments:
That is unheard of. That is seriously whacked and reminiscent of the crap that went on under Franco in Spain.
No wonder the communications workers throughout the federal civil service are the angriest of the lot. Not only do they have to work on propaganda but they have to practically take loyalty oaths.
Sounds familiar.
“We know that the people who don’t go to the rallies risk losing their job, like has happened to many. Or else they risk arrest because they are considered traitors of the regime,”
Syria...wow.
Yes, I know several comm people in the PS and they are not happy. You know how harper is with communication. We all remember the re-writing and whitewash on Env. Canada sites. Apparently, most comm. products in most departments are supposed to get a look over by PCO, now. Some departments and agencies are managing to hold out for various reasons, but I figure it's just a matter of time before harper pulls another centralize services excuse to make sure he controls all of those. Already heard some disturbing talk about media sections in departments being under the PCO looking glass. That, if true, means they mean to interfere with those functions as well.
See why I figure it won't be long before many of us on the Net are shut down one way or another? Centralized IT, Shared Services...just turning into one big machine under direct PMO control through PCO. That's a lot of power over the public clients.
I'm getting to where I'm just shifting foot to foot, wanting to say ok, let's do it, let's spar.
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