When Canada loses one of its top public servants it’s a loss for the country. When Canada loses two dozen of its top public servants for not subscribing to the partisan demands of the Prime Minister’s Office, a much larger problem exists.
Chief Statistician Munir Sheikh’s July 21 decision to resign reveals a deeper pattern of obsessive control and vindictive payback out of the Prime Minister’s Office. We have long witnessed Mr. Harper’s caucus and cabinet being required to stay on message and play pawns to the Prime Minister. More worrisome, Canada’s non-partisan, professional public employees and independent officers of Parliament are also expected to sing to Mr. Harper’s tune and if they don’t, they are removed, replaced, slandered, or all the above:
- Richard Colvin, Diplomat
- Linda Keen, Former Chairwoman of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission,
- Peter Tinsley, Former Head of the Military Police Complaints Commission
- Paul Kennedy, Former Chairman of the Commission of Public Complaints Against the RCMP
This is a style of leadership that chooses partisanship over honest thinking, ideology over science and fact, and rule by command over rule by democracy. By smearing whistleblowers and independent watchdogs, defunding groups that speak against the Conservative agenda, and even delegitimizing statisticians, the motto in the PMO is “centralized power at any cost”. By doing so, the Harper Conservatives reduce accountability and increase secrecy, casting a chill across our democracy. Policies are decided by ideology and short-term political gain, not by fact and nonpartisan advice.
Mr. Harper’s pattern of trying to control the independent agencies and oversight officers is a danger to the great men and women who serve our country as public servants, to our democracy and as a result, to all Canadians.
- Joyce Murray, MP for Vancouver Quadra
