Chantal Hébert mentions the federal Lobbying Act's 5 Year Prohibition Rule on the At Issue Panel

I just reviewed last week's At Issue Panel. Chantal Hébert:

You [the Harper Government] put in place lots of checks and balances. You have the Accountability Act. You basically make it difficult for just about anyone to come to work for a politician and then not pay for it for the rest of his career. But then as the government you're entitled to just take public money outside of every guideline and every process and say: "Well this money -- we're gonna spend as we sit fit and we're not even going to tell Parliament about it."

Meanwhile Guy Giorno (who is calling for jail time for breaching the federal Lobbyist's Code of Conduct) has twice since derided Hébert on twitter:

It's one thing for Giorno to lobby hard in the public sphere for changes to the Federal Lobbying Act. Yet if he is published doing that -- alongside seasoned political journalists, competing with them as though he has no partisan interest -- you would think he would at least possess enough common sense not to pick brutish fights with same on Twitter.

Lather. Rinse.

RETWEET

Policy Directions and Canadian Political Discourse

During this past year I have noted some very disturbing trends concerning the independence and rights of free association of our elite political class. I am interested in how this affects policy discourse.

One trend concerns changes to the Federal Lobbying Act that tend to unfairly restrict the employment rights of former politicians and political staffers toward silencing their voices. Read this excellent article from Borden Ladner Gervais to learn more and recall that Rona Ambrose recently dissuaded lobbyists from even approaching her while Lobbying Commissioner Karen Shepherd's messaging preceding and during the 41st general election dissatisfied many justly seeking clarification.

Another trend relates to the Social Media Mafia and political activism. I was recently threatened with a libel suit by a highly placed conservative party operative.  This same political party is now passing the collection plate in a bid to raise funds to silence our political pundits from full expression.

Further, the highly acclaimed intellectual Allan Gregg has published some rather questionable polling in the service of The Manning Centre that seeks to frame Canada's general political discourse as conservative in nature.  This comes as Gregg steps down from the At Issue Panel where his role was to comment objectively on partisanship in politics.

Finally Alex Himelfarb recently noted the following in reference to policy discourse related to Harper's Omnibus Crime Bill, the top priority of our government further to winning a majority mandate:

And in the end, in the name of safety, we are less safe. In the name of democracy, we are less free. And in our refusal to have the debate, to move beyond our prejudices, our fears, our anger, we make Canada a meaner and smaller place.

I will explore this subject in detail on this blog. Stay tuned...

My Love Letter from Guy Giorno

I got this a few weeks ago from Fasken Martineau. No word from Guy Giorno on what he plans to do next. Swatting flies with sledgehammers...fun sport for some.

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