Justice minister Felix Collins offered a spectacular example on Wednesday of how serious is the current administration’s political problem.
Collins makes a complete arse of himself trying to explain why he and his colleagues are refusing to act on a promise they made in 2007 to introduce legislation that would protect public servants who disclose information - in the public interest - about wrongdoing in government.
The video of Collins’ scrum with reporters is worth watching
CBC kindly posted the whole thing.
First, listen to what Collins says. Try and keep track of how many jurisdictions in Canada have whistleblower legislation. Is it six, five or three? Collins suggests at one point that we don’t need it. Then he says that he and his colleagues will continue to hunt for the perfect piece of legislation and bring it in.
Second, notice what the reporters do to him. It isn’t pretty. They are professional but they rip him to shreds. Any senior comms people from the provincial government - like say the Premier’s Office - should look at this and take note. They have an enormous problem. Not only are reporters openly mocking the ridiculous comments that cabinet ministers make, they are just disembowelling ministers like Collins with ease. we’ve seen the provincial government go from having one of the most efficient and effective communications systems to one that is crumbling before everyone’s eyes.
When you are done with Collins, read Russell Wangersky’s column on Collins and the whistleblower promise from last November. Nothing has changed. The Tories have no intention of keeping the promise they made in 2007. The reason doesn’t matter. What matters is that rather than make simple statements in plain English, Collins delivers the kind of bullshit he did to reporters on Wednesday.
As Collins demonstrates, there is a greater fraud than a promise unkept. It’s the weaselly denials about it.
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