The Headpiece of the Staff of Ra-Ra #nlpoli

The provincial New Democrats claim the Liberals broke their own independent appointments commission law when they appointed a bunch of folks to senior executive positions in the provincial public service last week.

Right off the bat, let's be clear:  the appointments didn't break the new Liberal signature law.

That's because the law has a gigantic loophole built into it.

Section 4 of the Independent Appointments Commission Act says that the lieutenant governor-in- council or the minister making an appointment "shall consider the recommendations of the commission in making an appointment."  The definition of an appointment is one made under another Act or to a position listed in the schedule at the end of the IAC Act.

Pretty clear.  This is the purpose of the new Act, right there.  Appointments get made based on recommendations of the new commission.

And having read that, the Dipper geniuses wrote their news release.

But this is like the headpiece of the Staff of Ra and the Dippers only had one side of the headpiece.

The very next section of the IAC Act is the loophole.  It's the bit where they take back everything the law said they had to do.

The future of the information commissioner #nlpoli

Donovan Molloy will be the new information and privacy commissioner.  He'll do a fine job, to be sure, but there is something about the appointment that seems a waste of the talents of a fellow who has been the director of public prosecutions.

He'd have made a fine judge, but the last time he applied for that position Molloy got screwed over by the guy in charge at the time.  Eventually, the former deputy minister of justice managed to get himself appointed to a seat where - as he well knew - we didn't need a judge at all.  

And about 11 days after that,  the chief suddenly and for no apparent reason quit his job as chief judge. Cabinet replaced him just as quickly and with no reason whatsoever vaulted his wife - the third most junior judge on the provincial bench at the time - to replace him. 

All very odd, if not downright suspicious.  

Molloy would have also made a fine deputy justice minister.  Too late for that now.

Picking stuff out of the appointments hockey bag #nlpoli

One of the provincial Conservatives’ signature new initiatives in the first session of the legislature after the 2003 election was a bill that supposedly set fixed election dates. 

Changes to the House of Assembly Act also triggered a general election if the Premier left office other than within a year of an existing fixed election date and reduced the number of days the Premier had to call a by-election from 90 days to 60 days.

When the bill appeared in the House, there were some obvious problems with it.  For starters, and in keeping with the constitutional traditions of Canada, there actually were no fixed dates for general elections.  The first clause of the amendment bill made it plain that nothing in the bill change the power of the Lieutenant Governor-in-Council to call an election whenever it wanted.