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Poland's tragedy; nuclear talks; and the glass ceiling is cracking in the civil service: Monday's A1 headlines and Parliamentary daybook

Poland's tragedy; nuclear talks; and the glass ceiling in the civil service appears to be cracking. Listen to my four -minute audio roundup of what's on the front pages of the country's newspapers plus highlights from Monday's Parliamentary daybook by clicking on the link below.

You can also get these audio summaries automatically every day via podcast from iTunes or via an RSS feed by subscribing to my AudioBoo stream. Both the iTunes link and the RSS link are at my profile at AudioBoo.fm. Lookin the top right corner of the “Boos” box.

MPs BlackBerry rules: Not for "the private interests of a Member or a Member's immediate family"

When you are elected to the House of Commons, you are handed a document called The Members' Manual of Allowance and Services. This document is published by The Speakers Office of the House of Commons and the content and policies that are contained in it are approved by what's known as the Board of Internal Economy, a committee of MPs from all parties who meet in secret every couple of weeks to discuss the financial matters of the House of Common and its general administration. This is the manual that sets out the ground rules for setting up and running an MPs office.

So far as I can tell, the Members Manual of Allowance and Services is not available on the Internet that most Canadians can use but is available on the Parliamentary intranet to which computers in almost every office on the Parliamentary Precinct are connected. As our bureau is not within the Parliamentary Precinct (but is two blocks away) and therefore is not on the Parliamentary intranet, my colleague, Global National producer Pam McKenzie, asked the Speakers Office last week for a copy of that manual, and was provided with one, after revelations emerged that then Minister of State for Status of Women Helena Guergis had provided her spouse, former Edmonton MP Rahim Jaffer, with one of the four BlackBerry wireless devices that all MPs are authorized to procure and use for the administration of their MPs office. Each BlackBerry comes with a Parliamentary e-mail account tied to the MPs office.

Here are the relevant excerpts from the Members' Manual has to say about the use and care of wireless devices that will be paid for by the House of Commons and, by extension, all taxpayers (I have provided the emphasis):

1. Introduction

Members are provided with operating funds, office premises in the Parliamentary Precinct and goods and services to be used to carry out their parliamentary functions (see definition below)…

2. Furniture, Computer, Equipment, and Supplies

Members are provided with standard furniture, equipment and supplies based on a scale of entitlement approved by the Board of Internal Economy, to support the operation of their Ottawa office . . ,

Wireless Devices: Members are provided with up to four (4) wireless devices, including three (3) voice plans, one (1) data plan, applicable monthly fees, air time, long-distance charges, and features such as voice mail, access fees and 911 services. Eligible devices include cell phones, pagers and Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) and must be procured by Telecommunications Services. .

Definitions

Parliamentary Functions

Duties and activities related to the position of Member of the House of Commons wherever performed and include public and official business, and partisan matters, but do not include the private business interests of a Member or a Member's immediate family. (reference: By-law 101)

Why is all this important?
It seems probable — indeed, highly likely — that the use by Jaffer of the e-mail account and wireless device by a sitting MP — and a minister, no less — is connected to the series of events the led to Prime Minister Stephen Harper calling in the cops on Guergis. E-mail and PIN traffic to and from each BlackBerry is almost certainly archived and stored by the administrators of the House of Commons information technology and telecommunications services. The admission Thursday by Guergis' spokesman that Jaffer had the use of one of her BlackBerrys — and her office's defence of the practice by noting that everybody does it — may have have initially worried the PMO that this practice was something Parliament's ethics commissioner ought to look into. But then, presumably, someone connected with the PMO asked to review some of the correspondence that came through the account associated with Jaffer and that may have triggered the heightened concerns that led to the belief that, in addition to ethics commissioner, the police ought to be investigating.

UPDATE: Anonymous commenter below claims PINs are not archived and that an MP would turn over e-mail only in response to a search warrant or an order from the Speaker. I am almost certain that the folks who run parl.gc.ca, just like any big corporation in Canada, archive all communications, including e-mail and PINs, involving any device they own and for which they are, ultimately, legally responsible. My tech sources on that are pretty solid though, as always, an on-the-record source will always change my mind. On the second point, that MPs must divulge e-mail only in extraordinary situations, I'm keen to see if someone would step up to substantiate that important point. Please e-mail me if you can.

Best films about the newspaper and TV news biz?

In New York City, this month, an independent movie house is running a series its calling The Newspaper Picture. It looks like a great idea. The series leads off this weekend with Ace In The Hole , the 1951 film from ace director Billy Wilder, and closes with Alan J. Pakula’s classic All the President’s Men. It also includes His Girl Friday (1940), a favourite of one Mr. A. Coyne of Maclean’s magazine and mine, which you may have seen as The Front Page on stage or in the 1931 film or the 1974 version with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.

A.O. Scott, the film critic, writes about the series in The New York Times, in a piece with the appropriate headline, “The Fearless Press, and other legends”:

“Remember newspapers? Neither do I, to tell you the truth, even though I’ve been working at this one for more than 10 years. But you have to go back a lot further— nearly half a century — to sample the sights, sounds and smells that still evoke the quintessence of print journalism in all its inky, hectic glory.

Or you could go to Film Forum, where a 43-movie month-long series called The Newspaper Picture opens on Friday … The program is a crackerjack history lesson and also, perhaps, a valediction. Not a day goes by that we don’t read something — a tweet, a blog, maybe even a column — proclaiming the death of newspapers, either to mourn or to dance on the grave. And even if those old newsprint creatures survive, say by migrating to the magic land of the iPad, they sure ain’t what they used to be. Where are the crusty editors and fast-talking girl reporters of yesteryear? I’m peeking over the cubicle wall, and all I see are Web producers and videographers.”

Continue reading Best films about the newspaper and TV news biz?

Helena Guergis; a B.C. political scandal, and stormy Saskatchewa: Saturday's A1 headlines and Parliamentary daybook

Calgary Herald front page The trials of Helena Guergus; B.C.'s political scandal; and stormy Saskatchewan: Listen to my two -minute audio roundup of what's on the front pages of the country's newspapers plus highlights from Saturday's Parliamentary daybook by clicking on the link below.

Vimy

The absolute best part of my job is that every now and again, you pull a dream assignment. That was the case in April, 2007 when I was assigned to travel with the Prime Minister of Canada for the ceremonies at Vimy Ridge, France marking the 90th anniversary of the famous First World War battle. On that Easter Sunday in 2007, the travelling media were virtually alone on the ridge, ahead of the thousands who would be there that afternoon, as the sun came up. Every one of us, including me, snapped as many pictures of this scene as we could. Of course, it was nothing like that 90 years earlier. There was no dawn on April 9, 1917, just terrible, wet, cold weather and mud that could swallow horses.

I've got some more pics from this assignment at my Facebook page.

Canada's stuck with a terrorist; the Vatican's silence; and death in the oilpatch: Friday's A1 headlines and Parliamentary daybook

Canada stuck with terrorist; the Vatican silences a scandal; death in the oilpatch and Listen to my four -minute audio roundup of what's on the front pages of the country's newspapers plus highlights from Friday's Parliamentary daybook by clicking on the link below.

Tags: national post, globe and mail, ottawa citizen, iran, vatican, drug plan

'Delighted' to leave Canadian custoy for an Afghan jail: The odd testimony of a Canadian sergeant

Through much of 2007, Canadian Forces military police officer Sgt. Carol Utton personally witnessed and participated in the transfer of dozens of suspected Taliban insurgents from the Canadian base at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan to Afghan authorities. The detainees would be taken to an Afghan-run prison where — I'm sure you've heard by now — we have now been told by senior Canadian diplomats testifying before a House of Commons committee [and, no, that's not a link to Richard Colvin but to another, even more senior, diplomat] that torture of those prisoners was widespread and routine at that time.

And yet — as Sgt. Utton, a military police office, testified this week in Ottawa before the Military Police Complaints Commission:

… once the Afghans had the detainee, Utton and other military police had no responsibility — or even interest — in the welfare of their former prisoners. She testified that, so far as she was aware, there was never any order or training for military police to take an interest in or to inspect conditions in Afghan prisons.

Indeed, military police had little cause for concern because the about-to-be transferred detainees themselves appeared to look forward to being in Afghan custody.

“Some of them seemed quite delighted,” Utton said in response to questioning by commission counsel Ron Lunau.

In fact, she described to the commission how upset one detainee was when Afghan authorities refused to take him and he was forced to stay in Canadian custody.

“The detainee had suffered severe medical complications after his IED exploded on him and he was quite injured by the time the transfer was to be made,” Utton said. “The (Afghans) were going to refuse because (Canadian media reports) said that the (Afghan) jail is filthy and the (Afghans) did not want to be blamed for anything that might happen to this detainee. And it took a lot of convincing that he was medically fit to be transferred. And the (Afghans) did take him at the time, but they had reservations.”

[Read the rest of the story ..]

Tags: afghanistan, detainees, canadian forces

Canada's rosy economic forecast; drug store battle and the back story on Rahim Jaffer: Thursday's A1 headlines and Parliamentary daybook

Canada's rosy economic forecast; drug store battle and a top investigative reporter looks into the back story on Rahim Jaffer's arrest; Listen to my four -minute audio roundup of what's on the front pages of the country's newspapers plus highlights from Thursday's Parliamentary daybook by clicking on the link below.

Tags: national post, globe and mail, toronto star, economy, drug stores, rahim jaffer

Guergis' hometown paper on those letters: "Another disappointing moment"

I've talked to a number of Conservatives over the last few days, particularly those involved in campaign outreach and fundraising for the federal party, and if there's one thing that they all agree on when it comes to Helena Guergis is that the issue is no longer one that only the so-called 'elites' in Ottawa are talking about. The trials and tribulations of the minister of state for the status of women has broken through the Ottawa bubble and is now ripe fodder for talk radio shows and coffee shop gossip. Some of these Conservatives also worry that the Guergis situation has the potential to tarnish the blue-collar “we-work-hard-and-play-by-the-rules” brand that Conservatives have been particularly keen to cultivate. Party fundraisers are now being told by potential donors that no more cash will be forthcoming until Guergis quits or is fired.

And now, Guergis hometown paper, the Collingwood Enterprise-Bulletin, has labelled her a disappointment.

Letters are a disappointment

Politics and election campaigns are one thing, but once the votes are counted and the declaration is made, the expectation is a Member of Parliament will represent all members of a constituency equally, not just those who may have voted for him or her.

The same goes for the member's constituency office. There's an electoral district association to represent the viewpoint of the party; the constituency office should be there as a non-partisan operation, as the main point of contact for a parliamentarian and his or her constituents — regardless of political orientation. Its staff are the member's representatives in the riding, attending events on behalf of the member. It is not there to act as a political shill for the member, rising to the member's defence to attack his or her critics – especially in the manner in which the staff for Helena Guergis have demonstrated.

A letters section in a newspaper is an opportunity for readers to be heard; a forum for free speech and the exchange of ideas on issues of the day.
Do we get letters from individuals who have a direct interest in the subjects being written about? Absolutely. And in many of those cases, the letter writer will identify his or her self and their interest.

For instance, we've had letters from Green Party candidates Stuart Starbuck and Peter Ellis — and they have always identified themselves as such. In this edition, Wasaga Beach mayoral candidate and former Liberal candidate Steven Fishman has a letter–and he has readily revealed his interest.
And we're certain we receive the 'fake grass-roots' letters, otherwise known as 'astroturfing'. These are usually churned out through a political campaign, or if there's a hot-button issue such as the environment or gun control. Never would we think such a letter would be produced by a representative's staffer, and done so in a manner in order to conceal the actual source of the letter.

It's somewhat telling the only correspondence we receive in support of the Member of Parliament would come from someone in her employ. And it's highly disappointing–and disturbing–those letters border on the saccharine in effusively praising the federal representative, while just as enthusiastically deriding anyone who dares to be critical of her…..

All in all, it is a another disappointing moment in the political career of our Member of Parliament.

[Read the entire editorial]

[Humour] Dear Shane: This time with a sponsor!

One of my favourite podcasts is the one CBC Radio 3's Grant Lawrence hosts (most) every week showcasing the latest in Canadian independent music. The podcast is mostly music but there's the occasional repeating feature such as "Dear Shane". In each segment, Shane Nelken, frontman for the Vancouver indie outfit The Awkward Stage, tries to provide advice and help to other travelling musicians, drawing on his "life of musical masochism."

In this recent "help-isode", Shane counsels Blaine Thurier of the New Pornographers, who is depressed. Unfortunately, because of budget cuts, CBC has had to take on a sponsor for "Dear Shane". I think the results are quite funny (safe for listening at work but be careful on the volume;)

Sign me up for the blue cheese cannon!