Author: Stephen Taylor

This weekend, I find myself in Calgary for the Calgary Congress put on by the Citizens Centre for Freedom and Democracy. The conference is a discussion on Renewing the Federation, filled particularly with discussion on the topics of equalization, senate reform, provincial jurisdiction and ‘rebalancing’ of federal power. The attendees certainly consists of conservatives from the Reform tradition of the Conservative Party, but a number of constitutional scholars, activists and bloggers are also present.

On Friday night, L. Ian MacDonald inititated much discussion and debate with his very academic speech on the duality of Canada’s constitutional traditions, namely the British North America Act and the Charter. He described the two Canadian constitutional tradition as ‘two mints in one’. Here are a couple of excerpts:

“The Conservatives, from Sir John A. Macdonald to Stephen Harper, are the party of classical federalism. The Liberals, from Lester Pearson to Paul Martin, are the party of centralizing federalism. The Conservatives are the BNA party. The Liberals are the Charter party. After a quarter century of Charter ascendancy, we are experiencing a renewal of our BNA inheritance. What Harper is proposing, and implementing, isn’t “open federalism”. It’s classical federalism.”

“Harper’s stance as a classical federalist puts him in the Conservative tradition as the BNA party, in a line that stretches from Macdonald to Mulroney. As classical federalists, all have understood that the provinces are their partners in Confederation, not the vassals of Ottawa.”

Macdonald went on to outline the examples of the centralizing federalist failure of the National Energy Program and the classical or “cooperative” federalist success of the QPP and the Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec.

Harper’s non-encroachment of the federal government on provincial areas of spending is a uniting force between the Quebec and Alberta, Macdonald argued. The re-introduction of BNA tradition is what is driving Conservative success in Quebec.

The notwithstanding clause of the Charter and how it allowed Trudeau to patch constitutional tradition in this country was another feature of Macdonald’s speech. Indeed, as he quoted Peter Lougheed, the Charter wouldn’t have existed without the notwithstanding clause and Macdonald argues that the clause actually protects the spirit of John A. Macdonald’s BNA tradition of respecting the differences of provinces with the federal government whether legislative or judicial.

Macdonald’s speech certainly refreshed my perspective on constitutional matters and particularly the rationale and purpose of the notwithstanding clause. It was certainly ironic to note that Paul Martin, the self-proclaimed defender of the Charter sought to remove its reason for being during the last election. It was a dough-headed move to appeal to an emotional electorate faced with a potential PM that might change the status quo on hot button issues and for constitutional scholars it was a desperate move that indicated that Martin either didn’t respect or understand (the former is the obvious conclusion) the constitutional traditions of Canada.

UPDATE: For those that are interested in the full-text of the speech, you can find it here.

(please also read my previous post for more background)

The Globe and Mail has been caught in error about Stockwell Day and RCMP Commissioner Zaccardelli.

From the Public Safety committee meeting today in Parliament:

Mark Holland: And the minister acknowledged it in the house, but I think — I just want to go to another question, which comes back to the earlier question that I asked, and that is to specifically ask this time if you received any direction from Mr. Day, verbally, in the meetings that you now say that you had, written or electronic or from any member of the government suggesting that you should restrict your access to the media on this matter.

Giuliano Zaccardelli [RMCP Commissioner – ST]: Mr. Chairman, I have not received any instructions that I should restrict myself from the media at all. As a matter of fact, I was on parliament hill on sunday honouring over 700 men and women who died in the line of duty. I saw the minister. I shook hands with him. His wife hugged me. We had a good conversation. I have not restrict myself. The media was there. They asked a question, and I answered a couple of questions.

This would seem to be a direct response to the Globe and Mail’s story of Sunday’s events. From my previous post, the Globe and Mail published this story (here’s an excerpt):

Mr. Day, who is the minister responsible for the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, said he would not talk with reporters Sunday if they wanted to ask about anything other than the solemn ceremony. It drew thousands to Parliament Hill, including families of 10 officers from seven different federal and local agencies killed in the past year.

Several high-ranking officers from other forces made a point of seeking out Mr. Zaccardelli either before or after the ceremony to shake his hand and offer words of encouragement. While Mr. Day happily posed for pictures with a variety of police officers, including a visiting detective from the New York Police Department, he stood away from his own top cop.

As I mentioned on Tuesday, I received an attachment containing a couple of letters Day and his staff wrote to the Globe and Mail chiding them for the mistake. Read the full letters here. Following are a couple of excerpts from the letters. First, from Minister Day:

Dear Editor,

I was shocked to read today’s front-page story, “RCMP Chief Muzzled, Friends Say.” Mr. Sallot’s article declared that I refused to even greet Commissioner Zaccardelli at a Memorial Service. This could not be further from the truth and I want to set the record straight.

My wife and I both shook hands with the Commissioner and talked at some length about the importance of the occasion.

The Globe refused to publish the letter from Day, so the Conservatives sent it to me.

Here’s an excerpt from a letter from Day’s Director of Communications blasting the Globe for getting the story wrong, and for refusing to publish the Minister’s letter explaining that the Globe was wrong:

To correct the facts, the Hon. Stockwell Day , Minister of Public Safety, submitted a letter to the editor yesterday, in which he wrote that “My wife and I both shook hands with the Commissioner and talked at some length about the importance of the occasion.”

Instead of rectifying this error, your paper refused to run Minister Day’s letter to the editor. In a message left on my voicemail yesterday, the comment editor said that “We have reviewed the footage of the event that CTV shot and I have to tell you that in no place, at no time during this service did Commissioner Zaccardelli and Mr. Day shake hands. At this moment, we can hardly run a letter which suggests something which appears not to be the case.”

Now we have testimony from the Commissioner showing that the Globe and Mail made an error (you don’t have to only take Day’s word for it now). Further, the Globe has not corrected the record.

UPDATE (9/29): The Globe has now corrected the record and offers “regret”:

A front page story Monday about RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli stated that Mr. Zaccardelli and Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day did not speak with each other at a Parliament Hill ceremony to honour police officers slain on duty. In fact, both men say they spoke and shook hands after the ceremony. The Globe and Mail regrets the error.

The Globe and Mail wrote a piece yesterday about the O’Connor ruling regarding the deportation and torture in Syria of Maher Arar. The article meant to be topical, however, the author Jeff Sallott (with files from Gloria Galloway) couldn’t find an appropriate backdrop for their writing since the focus of their piece, RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli, won’t answer their questions until he testifies later this week. Sallott however tried, unsuccessfully, to quiz the Commissionor at a memorial service.

Yesterday, the Globe and Mail published the following:

Mr. Zaccardelli surfaced for the first time publicly Sunday at a ceremony in Ottawa. But he refused to comment on the controversy that has swirled around him and his force since the release of an inquiry report last week that slammed the RCMP for giving erroneous intelligence to the United States that contributed to Maher Arar’s arrest and torture in Syria.

…

Mr. Day, who is the minister responsible for the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, said he would not talk with reporters Sunday if they wanted to ask about anything other than the solemn ceremony. It drew thousands to Parliament Hill, including families of 10 officers from seven different federal and local agencies killed in the past year.

Several high-ranking officers from other forces made a point of seeking out Mr. Zaccardelli either before or after the ceremony to shake his hand and offer words of encouragement. While Mr. Day happily posed for pictures with a variety of police officers, including a visiting detective from the New York Police Department, he stood away from his own top cop.

Stockwell Day wouldn’t even shake his hand? The intrigue! What’s going on here? Are there political machinations going on behind the scenes here? Who’s allying with whom, who is on the outs? The Globe and Mail has us ponder all of these questions as it tries to frame Day and Zaccardelli in an unamiable context.

Today, I received an email from the Conservatives that asserts that the events written by Sallott are either untrue or uninformed. Attached were a couple of letters sent into the Globe and Mail by Minister Day and his staff to clarify what they assert to be untrue scribblings by the country’s so-called newspaper of record. Here’s the kicker: faced with contrary information from their own reporters and Stockwell Day and his staff the Globe and Mail refused to publish the Day’s letter (in whole or in part) to give the full record to their readers.

Here is Day’s letter, unpublished by the Globe and Mail and presented here as an exclusive:

Dear Editor,

I was shocked to read today’s front-page story, “RCMP Chief Muzzled, Friends Say.” Mr. Sallot’s article declared that I refused to even greet Commissioner Zaccardelli at a Memorial Service. This could not be further from the truth and I want to set the record straight.

My wife and I both shook hands with the Commissioner and talked at some length about the importance of the occasion.

On a day to commemorate our country’s heroic police and peace officers who died to protect our communities, I was asked three times by Mr. Sallot to be interviewed about matters not pertaining to the solemn occasion. What I explained to Mr. Sallot-and what he evidently failed to understand-was that the 29th Annual Canadian Police and Peace Officers’ Memorial Service was not the appropriate time to discuss such matters. Rather, it was the time to pay tribute to our fallen officers.

Out of respect for the police and peace officers who died in the line of duty as well as their families, I did not wish to comment on unrelated matters. On a day of such sorrow and out of respect for our fallen officers, I would expect more responsible reporting.

Mr. Sallot’s professional lapse appearing on the front page of this paper, have been a source of distress to the people affected and deliberately painted in a false and harmful picture that deserves to be corrected.

Stockwell Day,

Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

Here is the followup letter from Minister Day’s Director of Communications blasting the Globe and Mail for its bias. Will the newspaper publish it?

Re. Jeff Sallot’s inaccurate article

On Monday, September 25 inaccurate information was published in your front-page story, “RCMP chief muzzled, friends say”. In Jeff Sallot’s article, he incorrectly stated that Minister Day and Mr. Zaccardelli “did not speak”.

To correct the facts, the Hon. Stockwell Day , Minister of Public Safety, submitted a letter to the editor yesterday, in which he wrote that “My wife and I both shook hands with the Commissioner and talked at some length about the importance of the occasion.”

Instead of rectifying this error, your paper refused to run Minister Day’s letter to the editor. In a message left on my voicemail yesterday, the comment editor said that “We have reviewed the footage of the event that CTV shot and I have to tell you that in no place, at no time during this service did Commissioner Zaccardelli and Mr. Day shake hands. At this moment, we can hardly run a letter which suggests something which appears not to be the case.”

In disbelief over such bizarre logic used by your comment editor, I listened to his message five times. I find it difficult to believe that the lack of television footage of Minister Day shaking hands with and speaking to Mr. Zaccardelli could be sufficient grounds for not publishing a letter to the editor.

I find it regrettable that the Globe and Mail would choose to muzzle Minister Day by not printing his letter to the editor. Furthermore, I am disappointed to note that one of your journalists, Jeff Sallot, missed a great opportunity to cover our heroic police and peace officers who died in the line of duty. Three times Mr. Sallot asked Minister Day for an interview on issues not pertaining to this solemn occasion. Three times Minister Day replied that “the Annual Canadian Police and Peace Officers’ Memorial Service was not the appropriate time to discuss such matters. Rather, it was the time to pay tribute to our fallen officers.”

Last night, Mr. Sallot called me to request another interview with Minister Day. Three times he asked me whether or not Minister Day greeted Commissioner Zaccardelli. I repeatedly assured him that Minister Day did. Nonetheless, Mr. Sallot refused to accept the truth and suggested that your newspaper would not clarify the facts before obtaining a personal interview with Minister Day.

I personally attended this service with families and thousands of uniformed officers. I and many others witnessed Minister Day and Mr. Zaccardelli paying their respects as well as supporting those family members who have lost loved ones in the line of duty. Your paper missed an opportunity to correct an extremely misleading and inaccurate story. I hope your will reconsider and publish this letter to the editor in efforts to assist your readers and set the record straight.

Mélisa Leclerc
Director of Communications
Office of the Hon. Stockwell Day,
Minister of Public Safety

Stockwell Day and his staff assert that the Globe and Mail has published an erroneous account of events which occurred. These events were construed to be political in nature and negatively so. Therefore, Day and staff wrote the editor a couple of letters. The editor has refused to publish Day’s letter. Why? Will they publish Leclerc’s letter?

NEW DEVELOPMENTS. See my next post for details. Click here