Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Incidentally...

...the most remarkable part of the Cons' information suppression scandal is probably the Cons' defence of even the political staffer who's inextricably tied to the order to break the law:
The Harper government told reporters on Tuesday that it was taking the case seriously, sending out a letter from the Prime Minister's Office to chiefs of staff of all ministers that urged all political staff to respect the access to information law if they wanted to continue in their jobs. But Paradis, who was Public Works minister at the time of the request, said Togneri has exceptional skills in managing parliamentary affairs and remains on his staff in the Natural Resources Department.
Now, it may be that it'll take a couple more days of the scandal percolating for the Cons to throw Togneri under the bus. But the fact that they're even trying to get away with keeping Togneri on in the wake of what's already been made public sends an obvious message to every political handler in the country that while independent thought is grounds for summary dismissal, anybody breaking the law in the service of Stephen Harper will have the full weight of the Con government behind them. And if the alternative is that Togneri is being defended because he was only following the party's orders in unlawfully "unreleasing" documents, that hardly speaks any better to the Cons' interest in obeying the law of the land.

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