The weekend newspapers offered ample evidence of the Harper government's disrespect for Parliament and the laws of the land. The sad irony is that it is a government that came to office pledging to uphold the law and restore respect for Parliament and yet, since day-one, has worked to undermine those whose are duty bound to fulfill and enforce the laws the people's representatives enacted.
Front-page news was the report that the Federal Court of Canada has set-aside Tony Clement's granting of a licence to Globalive Wireless; he had no legal grounds to overrule the CRTC's ruling that the company is not Canadian controlled and thus is not eligible to operate a wireless telephone service in this country. Canadians should be thanking Public Mobile for taking this to court rather than surrendering in the face of the government's arbitrary and illegal action based on nothing more than the quest for a few more votes anywhere it can get them. It was a brazen calculation that currying favour with a few hyped-up bloggers would be preferable than supporting Canadian business and millions of investors and pension-plan holders who believe they should respect and operate within the law. Preferable too, to supporting public servants trying to do the job given them to do by Parliament.
It was a delightful ruling, coming as it did a day after Clement was gloating over his "order" to the CRTC to review its January ruling on internet billing. Not only did the Federal Court smack-down Clement, but his university public law professor gave him a failing grade.
Front-page news was the report that the Federal Court of Canada has set-aside Tony Clement's granting of a licence to Globalive Wireless; he had no legal grounds to overrule the CRTC's ruling that the company is not Canadian controlled and thus is not eligible to operate a wireless telephone service in this country. Canadians should be thanking Public Mobile for taking this to court rather than surrendering in the face of the government's arbitrary and illegal action based on nothing more than the quest for a few more votes anywhere it can get them. It was a brazen calculation that currying favour with a few hyped-up bloggers would be preferable than supporting Canadian business and millions of investors and pension-plan holders who believe they should respect and operate within the law. Preferable too, to supporting public servants trying to do the job given them to do by Parliament.
It was a delightful ruling, coming as it did a day after Clement was gloating over his "order" to the CRTC to review its January ruling on internet billing. Not only did the Federal Court smack-down Clement, but his university public law professor gave him a failing grade.
Hudson Janisch, a University of Victoria expert in regulatory law who helped revise the Telecommunications Act in 1993, said Friday’s ruling should inspire the Tories to be more prudent as they admonish and browbeat the CRTC over its January Internet decision.
Prof. Janisch, who once taught Mr. Clement at the University of Toronto, urged his former student to tread cautiously. “I think what this decision should do is remind Mr. Clement, who was a student of mine in administrative law, that he should watch his legal Ps and Qs a little bit more carefully.”
link: Telecom ruling puts a leash on Tory cabinet authority - The Globe and Mail
What can we expect from the minister who, while in the Ontario Cabinet, mishandled the SARS crisis so effectively that the City of Toronto medical officer of health, a public servant, had to step-in and take control from Clement and his lackeys in order to prevent more lives being lost due to their mishandling of events.
There was a reminder of that unfortunate episode in Jane Taber's delightful Saturday profile of the prime minister's new she-wolf, appointed to manage his next election campaign. We learned that 34 year-old community college attendee Jenni Byrne is both "feared and fearless" as she takes on elected representatives, public servants and even cabinet ministers who fail to see that their sole mission is to ensure Stephen Harper wins a few more seats. True or not, this anecdote exemplified the lack of respect for due-process and the law that is rampant amongst the prime minister's entourage:
What can we expect from the minister who, while in the Ontario Cabinet, mishandled the SARS crisis so effectively that the City of Toronto medical officer of health, a public servant, had to step-in and take control from Clement and his lackeys in order to prevent more lives being lost due to their mishandling of events.
There was a reminder of that unfortunate episode in Jane Taber's delightful Saturday profile of the prime minister's new she-wolf, appointed to manage his next election campaign. We learned that 34 year-old community college attendee Jenni Byrne is both "feared and fearless" as she takes on elected representatives, public servants and even cabinet ministers who fail to see that their sole mission is to ensure Stephen Harper wins a few more seats. True or not, this anecdote exemplified the lack of respect for due-process and the law that is rampant amongst the prime minister's entourage:
“She turned issues management into a tiger operation,” says a former colleague.
A senior staffer recalls a conference call during the H1N1 crisis when Ms. Byrne, unhappy with how it was being handled, ordered a plane that was heading from Mexico be turned around after discovering there was no health officer to screen for the virus at the airport.
The whole time the staffer said he was thinking, “Can she do that?”
link: Young Harper aide shatters glass ceiling to run election campaign - The Globe and Mail
Of course a "director of issues management" (a rather low position with a grand title, as anyone who has worked in government knows) has no such authority but it is typical of an attitude encouraged in the PMO; the laws are for the little people to obey, not us.
These examples illustrate how Parliament and the public service are being ignored and sabotaged under the Harper regime. In a desperate quest for votes, it doesn't matter to the Conservatives that the CRTC is doing the job Parliament created it to do and that is enforcing the laws Parliament enacted. Maybe those laws are out-of-date, in the opinion of some proportion of Canadians, and deserve re-examination. But the government doesn't have the courage to do that, fearing where a free and informed debate might lead. Instead, like a tin-pot dictator, it makes up the rules as it goes along based on its whim of the moment. Parliament and the law are treated as irritants to be crushed.
It's not new discovery; it is the lesson repeated in the weekend papers.
Of course a "director of issues management" (a rather low position with a grand title, as anyone who has worked in government knows) has no such authority but it is typical of an attitude encouraged in the PMO; the laws are for the little people to obey, not us.
These examples illustrate how Parliament and the public service are being ignored and sabotaged under the Harper regime. In a desperate quest for votes, it doesn't matter to the Conservatives that the CRTC is doing the job Parliament created it to do and that is enforcing the laws Parliament enacted. Maybe those laws are out-of-date, in the opinion of some proportion of Canadians, and deserve re-examination. But the government doesn't have the courage to do that, fearing where a free and informed debate might lead. Instead, like a tin-pot dictator, it makes up the rules as it goes along based on its whim of the moment. Parliament and the law are treated as irritants to be crushed.
It's not new discovery; it is the lesson repeated in the weekend papers.
