David Emerson: Media Watch
Media Highlights for Thursday March 9 2006 – David Emerson
David Emerson Media Watch is updated through the day, until the end of the day, as new articles are published. Revisit and refresh…
Mar 9 (Canadian Press, Toronto Star) Harper violating law: Easter
OTTAWA – A Liberal MP says Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s refusal to co-operate with the ethics commissioner over the David Emerson floor-crossing violates the law and sets a dangerous precedent.
[Past Solicitor General Wayne] Easter said the law requires MPs to co-operate with Shapiro and the prime minister is not above the law.
As former top justice official in Canada, Easter’s opinion carries the weight of experience. This story from CP and others is being carried very broadly in the media today across the country.
Mar 9 (Reuters, UK) Canada’s prime minister pressured on ethics probe
OTTAWA, March 9 (Reuters) – New Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whose Conservatives won power on a promise to clean up politics, came under increasing pressure on Thursday over his reluctance to cooperate with an investigation into his own ethical conduct.
Harper formally took power on Feb. 6 and immediately gave a cabinet position to former industry minister David Emerson, who had served in the defeated Liberal government and who won his seat in the Jan. 23 election as a Liberal.
The defection triggered a storm of criticism and ethics commissioner Bernard Shapiro, who reports directly to Parliament, is now probing whether Harper improperly offered inducements to Emerson to change parties.
Coverage of the Harper-Emerson affair spans the globe…
Mar 8 (Burnaby News Leader) PM should let ethics watchdog investigate
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
That refrain couldn’t be more true this week in the prime minister’s office after Stephen Harper told the federal ethics commissioner to butt out of the controversy surrounding David Emerson’s appointment to cabinet.
We don’t disagree that it’s ultimately up to the prime minster to make cabinets appointments. The problem comes in is how he went about it.
In the hours after announcing Emerson’s appointment, Harper openly said he approached the B.C. MP about giving him a cabinet position in exchange for crossing the floor. It’s that alleged inducement that Ethics Commissioner Bernard Shapiro is rightly looking into because of accusations the offer violated the Member of Parliament Code of Ethics.
Another local press outlet weighs in, helping convict my party in the court of public opinion, on charges we so richly deserve.
Mar 9 (Doug Marner, The Georgia Straight) We got yer Emerson letter right here
It’s about time Canadian voters get pissed off about this crap and demand changes in the election rules. A by-election definitely should be held in Vancouver-Kingsway, whether Emerson wants to run or not, just as there should have been a by-election in Belinda Stronach?s riding after she crossed the floor from Conservative to Liberal.
A letter writer from Lake Cowichan BC hits the nail on the head…
[Caution, partisan source] Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s arrogant refusal to cooperate with the office of the Ethics Commissioner has yet again demonstrated his persistent hypocrisy regarding government accountability, said Wayne Easter, MP for Malpeque.
“Which other officers of Parliament will the Prime Minister refuse to cooperate with next on the basis of claiming they are ‘Liberal appointees’? Will Sheila Fraser, the Auditor General of Canada, be attacked in the same way as Dr. Shapiro when she attempts to do her job in reviewing the activities of Mr. Harper’s Ministers?”
Partisan source or not, these are legitimate questions.
Mar 9 (Carl Rosenberg, The Globe and Mail) Question of ethics
Andrew Stark’s defence of David Emerson’s bait-and-switch (The Ethics Commissioner Is Overstepping His Bounds—March 8) could have been written by Mr. Emerson himself.
Mr. Stark writes that “the very fact that Mr. Harper invited a moderate like [Emerson] into his cabinet, Mr. Emerson has said, suggests that Mr. Harper is willing to pursue a more mellow course than Mr. Emerson first thought.” This is a rather charitable way of rationalizing an act of blatant opportunism—campaigning as a fierce opponent of a party and then joining it two weeks after the election. It’s amazing how an offer of a cabinet post changed Mr. Emerson’s opinion of Mr. Harper so quickly.
In a Vancouver-Kingsway coffee shop I recently met Mr. Rosenberg – he is the editor of Outlook, an independent secular Jewish publication with over 40 years of history. In his personal opinion column (Outlook, Mar/Apr 2006), Rosenberg observed “the whole affair revealed Harper as a hypocrite, and Emerson as a double-crosser and opportunist, of the first order.”
Mar 9 (Peter O’Neil, CanWest News) PM might be in contempt on probe, Broadbent says
Prime Minister Stephen Harper risks being found in contempt of Parliament if he doesn’t agree to co-operate with an investigation launched by ethics commissioner Bernard Shapiro, former New Democratic leader Ed Broadbent warned yesterday.
But Broadbent said the prime minister, by refusing to co-operate and by attempting to discredit Shapiro, is showing disrespect for an important officer of Parliament.
Harper, Broadbent noted, is also violating the ethics code requirement that all MPs must co-operate during investigations.
“The prime minister is moving in dangerous territory himself, no doubt inadvertently, and he could even be found in contempt of Parliament,” Broadbent told CanWest News Service yesterday.
Parliament has the authority, though it has never been used, to throw anyone in jail for contempt of Parliament, according to the latest edition of the authoritative House of Commons Procedure and Practice, by Robert Marleau and Camille Montpetit.
Contempt is defined as “any act or omission which offends against the authority or dignity of Parliament (and) can include disobedience to a legitimate command of the House or libels against it, its officers or its members,” according to the Parliament of Canada website.New Democrat MP Peter Julian said yesterday his caucus colleagues, meeting today and tomorrow in Ottawa, will consider whether to raise a motion of contempt against Harper when the new Parliament begins next month.
Last Friday, Harper’s new director of communications questioned Shapiro’s credibility, calling him a “Liberal appointee.”
“We’re not going to co-operate,” Sandra Buckler said.
The people of Vancouver-Kingsway would like to see someone go to jail over the Harper-Emerson affair, but we’ll graciously settle for what we deserve most: an immediate by-election.
Mar 9 (Curry – Blackwell, The Globe and Mail) The Shapiro controversies
Harper faces growing furor over the Ethics commissioner, a man who has endured storms before
OTTAWA—Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s refusal to co-operate with an investigation by the Ethics Commissioner would break a promise he made during the election campaign, opposition MPs said yesterday.
Mr. Harper’s dispute with the commissioner also appears to have set the stage for a fierce battle between his minority Conservative government and the opposition when the House of Commons returns next month.
The Liberals, Bloc Québécois and NDP vowed to block an attempt to replace commissioner Bernard Shapiro and noted that Mr. Harper’s comments are at odds with an election pledge in the Conservatives’ accountability program.
Under the heading “Strengthen the role of the Ethics Commissioner,” the document says: ”Stephen Harper will . . . prevent the prime minister from overruling the ethics commissioner on whether the prime minister, a minister, or an official is in violation of the conflict of interest code.”
* See page 13 in Stephen Harper’s Federal Accountability Act (PDF), which was plugged by Harper at every possible opportunity during the last general election. My party, and Harper in particular, ran on an ethics and accountability platform in order to exploit voter distrust of the Liberals. Now PM, Harper is pulling a trick that, when in opposition, Harper himself would have been calling for the PM’s head.
Mar 9 (Editorial, The Globe and Mail) Oh right. That pledge
If Prime Minister Stephen Harper is prepared to accept advice on dealing with Ethics Commissioner Bernard Shapiro, he should turn to a fellow named Stephen Harper. In the Conservative election platform, Mr. Harper emphasized the need for accountability. “As Prime Minister, I will lead by example,” the Conservative Leader promised. He vowed to “strengthen the role of the Ethics Commissioner” and, in particular, to “prevent the Prime Minister from overruling the Ethics Commissioner on whether the Prime Minister, a minister or an official is in violation of the Conflict of Interest Code.”
This morning’s editorial on the Harper-Emerson affair concludes by asking the rhetorical question ‘where’s the Stephen Harper who pledged to run a clean and accountable government when you need him to clean up Stephen Harper?’
Mar 9 (Robert Howard, The Hamilton Spectator) Harper unwise to snub Shapiro
Regardless of whether Bernard Shapiro is a competent parliamentary ethics commissioner, the office he holds deserves more respect than Prime Minister Stephen Harper is giving it.
Parliament for far too long had to settle for an ethics counsellor who toothlessly reported to the prime minister. An independent commissioner reporting to Parliament is essential to accountable government.
Harper—who campaigned on ethical reform in government—should not disrespect the office by refusing to meet with Shapiro. If the ethics commissioner says something deserves investigation, it should not be up to the prime minister to say no.
Harper can hold his nose if he has to, but he should co-operate with Parliament’s ethics commissioner—whoever the incumbent happens to be.
The ethics commissioner will proceed – there is no doubt of that, as he reports to Parliament, and the majority of parliamentarians want an inquiry to proceed, as do most Vancouver-Kingsway residents. Harper needs to do more than plug his nose, he needs to be totally transparent and open, as he certainly will be if there is nothing to hide.