Skip to main content

“I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.” ~~ John G. Diefenbaker

PECKFORD: The public interest is for the elected. The clerk advises the elected. End of story. The clerk erred.


Today we welcome a regular on Merv Unger’s www.nanaimonet.com ... former Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, Brian Peckford.  We’ll be sharing some of his commentaries on a regular basis right here ... hope you enjoy them.





This is not complicated, notwithstanding those many who want to make it so. As I hinted in an earlier column, I suspected a major damage-control action by the federal Liberal Government.

And we got the first blow from the Clerk of the Privy Council.

The clerk is a Deputy Minister; supposedly non-partisan; providing policy advice to the Prime Minister and Cabinet. He is also secretary to the Cabinet.

He is not in the Prime Minister Office; he is in the Privy Council Office. C’est la difference.

Political advice is the purview of the PMO.

Now many want to spin this and split hairs to somehow have it that the clerk was just carrying out his duties when he essentially intervened. No way.

Listen: SNC Lavalin applied for an exemption under the recently-passed amendment to the criminal code surreptitiously inserted in a budget bill, for which they lobbied.

OK it was passed and is the law. The Director of Prosecutions received the application and made a decision as to whether SNC Lavalin qualified to be considered for such an exemption. The Director decided that SNC Lavalin did not qualify. And, as I understand it, the Minister supported that decision.

That’s should have been the end of it – nada, finis, done, over! 

In my ten years as Premier no such decisions made by the Director of Prosecutions came to my office, or my office to that department. I never once discussed such matters with the minister or he/she with me. It was off limits.


So this “business “carried in the CBC article about the clerk of Privy Council (in my terms clerk of executive council) contacting the Minister about a matter decided or before the Director of Prosecutions is absurd. That the CBC would try to justify this with an anonymous source as I said in my last column is ridiculous.

This is not the Clerk’s job! He overstepped his bounds. And to go on and say the Clerk had to protect the public interest is outlandish, outside his mandate, and responsibilities.

Anyway, the matter of jobs etc. is not the issue. The issue is whether the application met the conditions of the Act. Competent, independent officials said it did not.

The public interest is for the elected. The clerk advises the elected. End of story. The clerk erred.

If the Government of Canada still wants to assist SNC Lavalin they should do the honorable thing and present to Parliament further amendments to the Criminal Code dealing with remediation agreements.

Of course, they cannot do this now with all the furor. Too bad.

Case closed? Not quite. Closed as it relates to the present decision by the Director of Prosecution but not closed in that those in the Government who tried to exert influence must be held accountable.

The mere incident of the PM meeting with the Minister and discussing this type of matter was wrong and undoubtedly approving that the clerk talk to the Minister is also wrong. 


Former Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Brian Peckford writes regularly on Nanaimonet.com.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

GORDON F. D. WILSON: When The Trick Masquerades as The Treat

Thirty-seven years ago, Halloween 1987, I became the leader of the BC Liberal Party.   British Columbia was badly polarized. Social Credit held one side and the NDP the other. It had been twelve years, 1975, since Liberal MLAs Garde Gardom, Pat McGeer, and Alan Williams had walked away from their party to join Social Credit, one year after the lone Progressive Conservative MLA Hugh Curtis had abandoned his party to sit with Bill Bennett, the son and heir apparent to long-serving BC Premier, WAC Bennett.   An unwritten agreement by the biggest Canadian political shareholders, the federal Liberals and Conservatives, decided that if British Columbia was to remain a lucrative franchise from a revenue perspective, they couldn’t risk splitting the electoral vote and electing the real enemy, the NDP, so no resources would be used to finance either a Liberal or Conservative party provincially.   “There are two sides to every street,” I was told by a very prominent Canadian businessman who cont

FORSETH: You Have To Be A Bit Crazy

  Ward and his wife Carleen celebrating his win on election night.   In March of this year, I took on the role of Campaign Manager for BC Conservative candidate Ward Stamer.  It’s the third time I’ve had the opportunity as I took on the role for Peter Sharp in 2013, and for Dennis Giesbrecht in 2020. Now let me tell you, in the past, a BC Conservative campaign team generally consisted of myself, the candidate and one or two helpers – and very little in the way of a campaign budget. Thankfully, a benefit of having spent 30+ years in the broadcast media afforded me the ability to do ad copy and write candidate speeches, and prep both Dennis and Peter to deal with the media – it’s also something I have always enjoyed. That was part of my duties this time around as well, however having a team of a dozen and a half volunteers meant that for the first time we had people available to ID our supporters, put together and install campaign signs, distribute campaign literature, and help out at ou

FORSETH: As a BC Conservative member, and campaign worker, I will again state that the fact these errors were found -- AND brought to light BY Elections BC -- shows the system IS working

Sadly, two and a half weeks after the BC provincial election campaign, those who want to undermine our political process are still at.  PLUS, we also have one who doesn’t even live in our country, never mind our province. I speak of the buffoon running for President of the United States, who has poisoned the well when it comes to faith in the electoral process. Just today alone, comments such as the following, were being made of posts that I shared online: ... all the votes they keep finding has just favoured NDP on in all critical ridings and soon they will flip another riding in favour of NDP, Come on. ... Elections BC has ridiculed British Columbians, and I no longer have confidence or trust in their process and competence regarding the results Then there are others online, with comments like these – who are claiming fraud in the October 19th election: ... Who is the oversight for Elections BC? They should be investigated for election fraud! ... Fraudulent election ... should be red

Labels

Show more