Brian Crawley, chief of staff, Premier's Office, in testimony at the Cameron Inquiry on the extent to which he involved himself in departmental business:
Mr. Crawley: At this stage of the game our role would have been very much just to have been advised of it , and I would have treated this issue the same as , you know , 99 percent of the other issues that come forward , you know. It's the department's job to manage it and if there is something there we should be aware of , I would expect to be made aware of it.
Commissioner : So forgive me , but that means no role , doesn't it?
Mr. Crawley: Yeah , no role in the sense of we actually have to do anything.
[Emphasis added]
Then there's this curious extract from the memos, e-mails and other documents that show the extent of government interference in efforts to hire a new president at Memorial University.
Curious because it seems to run contrary to Crawley's assertion that his office doesn't get involved in departmental business, at least not usually.
"I understand Brian C[rawley] will have called you on behalf of the Premier with the details."
That's a reference to the Premier's chief of staff and a call Crawley apparently made to education minister Joan Burke "on behalf of the Premier."
-srbp-