The Commons agriculture committee tomorrow opens hearings on a growing billion-dollar trade dispute with China. MPs feared a Beijing boycott of canola seed will spill over to other sectors: “All of them are scared.”
Prime Minister Andrew Scheer
pulls no punches
persuading his Attorney General
to drop charges against SNC-Lavalin.
He knows the importance
of keeping the company going.
Across the aisle,
Leader of the Opposition Justin Trudeau
speaks highly about the rule of law,
blames the Prime Minister for
bullying and threatening the Attorney General,
condemns a behaviour he declares
is harassment.
He knows the importance
of keeping the story running.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
On March 22, 2013 hours before that year’s budget was tabled in Parliament, two newspapers reported the Department of Finance was about to cut tariffs on hockey equipment. “Cheaper Hockey Gear An Assist To Parents”, read the Globe & Mail headline. “This Year’s Shiny Object: Cheaper Hockey Gear”, read the National Post.
Readers could only conclude both newspapers in a simultaneous burst of enterprise reporting had uncovered a budget secret through fearless digging. In fact, both were fed the line by department staff. This was not news-gathering; it was propaganda.
The dailies did not mention cabinet attempted to raise tariffs on hockey equipment three months before the budget, and Bauer Hockey Corp. replied with a confidential letter threatening to move all production out of Canada. Blacklock’s had that story all to itself.
Here in a nutshell was the cynical interplay between officialdom and media. Both insist they have a “relationship”, like organ grinder and monkey, though neither can agree on who is which.
With public distrust of government and media at an ever-ascending high, the University of Alberta Press has the timely release of the third edition of In The News: The Practice Of Media Relations In Canada. The book is co-written by communications professionals, for communications professionals, but it’s instructive for any member of the audience coveted by officialdom and press: the general public, you.
“Media relations is the art and science of reaching your target audience with key messages through the news media,” authors explain. “Media relations is one of public relations’ main practice areas and, arguably, one of the most difficult. It is one of the only communications disciplines that goes through a gatekeeper – news media – to reach the end audience.”
In The News is entertaining and refreshingly frank. “Reporters are not inherently blessed with brains, civility or ethics,” write authors. “Neither are communicators. Both can be wrong-headed, uncivil or simply obtuse.”
Authors recommend that clients avoid news conferences (“the pack might tear you or your spokesperson to pieces”); try not to be clever (“spin can blow back on its practitioners”); prepare for surprises (“you cannot manage the media”); and understand that journalism is a completely unregulated trade, meaning literally anyone can join. True fact: Cement truck drivers are subject to more regulatory oversight than reporters.
“Given that neither journalism nor communications is likely to become regulated, they must police themselves,” write authors: “Today’s media consider themselves objective and non-partisan – a far cry from media coverage in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, when political parties owned newspapers and provide the party line to loyal readers. Like others who deal frequently with media, politicians see the media’s mistakes and shortcomings more than most people do; this knowledge adds to their skepticism about dealing with reporters.”
By Holly Doan
In The News: The Practice of Media Relations in Canada, 3rd Edition, by William Wray Carney, Colin Babiuk and Mark Hunter LaVigne; University of Alberta Press; 320 pages; ISBN 9781-7721-24118; $39.99
Environment Canada in Access To Information memos calculates its national carbon tax to take effect April 1 will cost billions, with a marginal impact on greenhouse gas emissions in at least one province studied. The department calculated impacts on Saskatchewan, the first province to defy the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act: ‘Emissions would be reduced by about 0.6 percent.’
The Commons justice committee is asking every MP and Senator for input including copies of Facebook attacks for a national study on hate speech. The committee also proposes cross-country hearings in a pre-election probe of “enticement of hate” online: ‘It’s to stem the propagation of hateful acts.’
The Commissioner of Official Languages has cited Parks Canada for breach of the Official Languages Act. The agency issued polling data tables in French only. It earlier failed a 2012 audit for “shortcomings in the bilingual delivery” of service: “There was a technical glitch.”
Canadians typically face miles-long delays at border crossings, says a former Canadian ambassador to Ireland. The claim is contradicted by data from the Canada Border Services Agency and its U.S. counterpart. The remarks were made to an Irish newspaper: “You could be there for hours.”
The Canadian Tourism Commission is paying U.S. publicists up to $320 an hour to pitch travel-friendly features to American media, accounts show. The total budget surpassed the $100,000 spent by VIA Rail in 2014 to offer free train trips to U.S. travel writers: “We will be speaking to our lawyer.”
The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls is ending its work in Federal Court. Lawyers filed an application with a federal judge considered so damaging, the Department of Justice immediately sought to have the record concealed from the public: ‘It remains concerned about confidential information.’
The Crown prosecutor at the heart of the SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. political scandal is being honoured by a global lawyers’ group. Director of Public Prosecutions Kathleen Roussel yesterday served notice she was named a part-time director of the International Association of Prosecutors: ‘Unless the Attorney General intervenes, the final decisions are mine.’
A photogenic family on the cover of the 2019 budget Investing In The Middle Class are an actual Canadian, middle-class mother and son and not professional models, says the Québec City photographer who sold the image to Finance Canada. The department halted its use of paid models after MPs protested the spiraling cost of budget artwork: “Putting faces on the budget cover is a great idea.”
The Department of Foreign Affairs in an internal contracting review acknowledges it skirted disclosure rules, breached the Canada Labour Code and repaid suppliers twice for the same work. Misconduct was uncovered by auditors reviewing $740 million in contracts: “Global Affairs Canada does not have effective controls.”
The Department of Public Safety in an Access To Information memo says it remains convinced lawyers are susceptible to money-laundering and should be watched. The memo was written months after the Federation of Law Societies told a parliamentary committee that self-regulation has worked: ‘They have specialized knowledge and expertise.’
The Federal Court in one of its first rulings in a wave of asylum claims by illegal immigrants has ordered a Haitian-American family out of the country. A judge ruled the family had no claim of hardship, and only entered Canada for “better health care”.
The Commons ethics committee by a 5 to 4 vote yesterday rejected hearings on the SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. political scandal. The vote by the panel’s Liberal majority followed a March 20 decision by MPs to end public hearings at the House justice committee: “You hold the majority of the votes, and we all can count.”
