Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem yesterday said Canada’s economic future is uncertain and warned there “will always be new shocks.” His remarks followed repeated failed forecasts that downplayed inflation risks: “It’s not like we got everything right.”
The Privy Council Office plans a nationwide videoconference this fall “to reaffirm values and ethics” for federal employees. It follows disclosure of an internal report detailing crude bigotry by managers including use of the n-word: “Racialized employees experience a very, very different public service.”
The Department of Justice yesterday had no comment after its senior counsel wrote a vulgar social media post comparing media critics to animal urine. Remarks by Alexander Gay followed a department pledge that journalists “should never be subjected to intimidation or harassment for doing their critical work.”
Attorney General Arif Virani’s office did not reply to questions. Virani last May 3 on World Press Freedom Day said his department celebrated “the important work of journalists.”
“Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of democracy and enshrined in our Charter Of Rights And Freedoms,” wrote the Attorney General. “Journalists should never be subjected to intimidation or harassment for doing their critical work.”
Counsel Gay’s LinkedIn post Sunday was in reaction to a Sun Media commentary on Blacklock’s Reporter v. Attorney General, a case currently before the Federal Court of Appeal. The August 31 article by columnist Lorne Gunter was critical of officialdom.
“The only thing bizarre is the journalist that wrote this article and made up some random facts,” wrote Counsel Gay. “My late father would call this yellow journalism which I believe had something to do with a newspaper that was only good enough to train a dog to pee outdoors.”
The Department of Justice Values And Ethics Code mandates “respectful communication” by employees. Federal lawyers must “conduct themselves in a manner that does not harm the reputation of the department,” it says.
“As public servants we contribute to good governance, democracy and the well-being of Canadian society,” says the Code Of Conduct. “We are committed to respecting the law and upholding the highest standards of integrity and fairness.”
Made Up Urine Reference
Justice department employees must “uphold the public trust” and be civil in dealing with Canadians, continued the Code. “Treating all people with respect, dignity and fairness is fundamental to our relationship with the Canadian public,“ it said.
Authorities did not comment on whether the ‘dog pee’ post complied with the Code Of Conduct. “Journalists are the bedrock of our democracy,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said May 3 in observance of World Press Freedom Day.
“Canada will always stand up for journalists in the defence of media freedom and against misinformation and disinformation,” said the Prime Minister. “Journalists must be able to do their jobs free from threat or intimidation.”
Counsel Gay made up the claim that “yellow journalism” referred to animal urine. Records show the phrase originated as a 19th century pejorative against the New York Journal. The now-defunct daily published a comic strip called The Yellow Kid, “the adventures of an engaging slum urchin,” wrote William Swanberg, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the 1961 volume Citizen Hearst, a biography of Journal publisher William Randolph Hearst.
Hearst sponsored “Yellow Kids” fundraisers for orphans and an 1896 “Yellow Fellow” cross-country bicycle race. Critics adopted “yellow journalism” in criticizing Journal coverage of the 1898 Spanish-American War and dubbed Hearst the “yellow kid” in his 1902 campaign for the U.S. Congress.
By Staff 
Federal collection of court fines has collapsed, records show. The Public Prosecution Service says it now collects only five percent of federal fines levied for tax avoidance and other offences: “It’s as if justice exists only on paper.”
Liberal and Bloc Québécois MPs yesterday saved Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault from committee questioning over business dealings with a subsidized Montréal company. The Commons public accounts committee by a 6-5 vote rejected a Conservative motion to question Guilbeault: “Where there is smoke there is fire.”
The president of the National Research Council yesterday promised taxpayers “the highest standards” on ethics. Mitch Davies’ remarks followed audits of conflicts in green technology funding: “Canadians are skeptical when they hear senior civil servants uttering words like, ‘trust us.'”
Elections Canada has won a Federal Court case over enforcement of its mask mandate in the 2021 campaign. Records show the agency was preoccupied with Covid precautions in the last election: “There was no procedural unfairness.”
Privy Council in-house research prodded Canadians to consider raising taxes on the rich, records show. Focus group researchers weeks before cabinet’s April 16 capital gains budget asked people “what they thought of when they heard the term ‘wealthiest Canadians.’”
Lawyers opposing Blacklock’s Reporter in the Federal Court of Appeal abruptly deleted social media posts on the case. The Law Society of Ontario advises lawyers to avoid being “petty” or “intemperate” on social media platforms.
James Plotkin, counsel for a pro-government intervenor against Blacklock’s, deleted a LinkedIn post stating: “‘Riddled with mistakes’ is a risky stone to throw from a glass house ;).” Plotkin is a partner with Gowling WLG of Ottawa that last year received $723,824 in federal contracts.
Alexander Gay, senior counsel for the Department of Justice, also deleted a LinkedIn post stating: “Nothing like an appeal to sort it all out. Happy to meet any daring soul in a courtroom.”
Blacklock’s on Friday filed an appeal in the case. The Law Society of Ontario in a guideline Public Appearances And Statements recommends that lawyers avoid making snide remarks on social media.
“Licensees should avoid any criticism that is petty, intemperate or without merit,” says Public Appearances. “Licensees should always bear in mind their position in society can lend their opinions greater weight in the eye of the public and that they will ordinarily have no control over the context in which statements they make are used by the media.”
Blacklock’s is challenging a May 31 lower court ruling that federal managers could lawfully share passwords to paywalled stories without payment or permission. The decision came in the case of a Parks Canada manager Genevieve Patenaude caught sharing her Blacklock’s password with any co-worker who asked, at least nine people, “if you ever need to access any Blacklock’s article.”
Counsel Gay, the senior federal lawyer in the case, slandered Blacklock’s as a copyright troll following the May 31 ruling. “That’s the business model,” Gay was quoted in an interview with the periodical lawyer Canadian Lawyer.
Federal Court Justice Yvan Roy specifically dismissed the slander. “The Attorney General forcefully suggested Blacklock’s modus operandi is akin to copyright tolling which is described as copyright holders using the threat of litigation to generate revenue,” wrote Justice Roy.
“I was not inclined to consider further any allegation of copyright trolling perhaps with a view to implying an abuse of copyright,” wrote Justice Roy. “Having considered again the evidence before the Court I continue to disregard such assertions.”
Hugh Stephens, former assistant deputy trade minister, said in a commentary that remarks by the Department of Justice against Blacklock’s were an obvious tactic. “Not only has the Attorney General taken a hard line on this case it has also tried to blacken Blacklock’s reputation by accusing it of entrapment and being a copyright troll,” wrote Stephens.
“Blacklock’s had to resort to Access To Information requests to learn how many government employees had accessed the single subscription they had authorized,” wrote Stephens. “The judge in the case explicitly expressed dismissed these allegations, noting Blacklock’s had no intent to deceive.”
By Staff
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s weekend appointment of two Liberal Party donors as Alberta senators came 35 years after the province held Canada’s first Senate election. The Government of Alberta denounced the patronage appointments: “The Senate continues to lose credibility.”
Conventional television remains a loser, CRTC figures show. English language TV revenues last year fell from $1.2 billion to $1.1 billion, a seven percent decline: “How much time do we have?”
Uncensored coverage of court proceedings is “an important feature of public transparency,” a press ombudsman has ruled. The decision came in the case of a British Columbia weekly criticized for publishing fraud allegations against two local residents: “Canada has an open court system.”
Blacklock’s Reporter pauses today for the 130th observance of Labour Day in tribute to Canadian workers nationwide. We will be back tomorrow — The Editor
The radio
brings the news
about the resignation
of the Honourable Premier.
Across the kitchen floor,
a fly tries to find its way out
through the window’s glass.
One of these events
captivates the attention
of my cat.
By Shai Ben-Shalom
Nations at war, glorify war. Otherwise war would be untenable. Remembrance Day observances have seen the Royal B.C. Museum hand out helmets to 7-year olds and have them sit in a jeep. The Calgary Sun assigned a reporter to walk city streets shaming 9 in 10 passersby who failed to wear a poppy. Grade 10 students in Tillsonburg, Ont. were asked to jog through a ditch in a farmer’s field. CTV News Channel called it “a realistic experience about war.”
Canada in recent years was at war in Afghanistan, Libya and Syria. At the same time officialdom and media celebrated wartime exploit as a central fixture of the Canadian experience. This is factually dubious but worthy of thoughtful analysis. Professor Sherrill Grace, a professor of literature at the University of British Columbia, examines the phenomenon. The result is striking and poignant.
Take Vimy, a largely pointless 1917 battle that’s become the centerpiece of historical pageantry. Vimy did not win the war. Most soldiers who fought there were not Canadian-born but British expatriates. It was not even the most significant event of 1917. The year saw revolution in Russia, mutiny in the French army, U.S. entry into the war and unrestricted U-boat warfare that claimed shipping casualties at the rate of 10 vessels a day. Historian Leon Wolff in an account of 1917 dispensed with Vimy in two paragraphs.
“Vimy marked our coming of age because our troops fought together as Canadians, albeit under the command of the British Lieutenant-General Sir J.H.G. Byng,” Sherrill writes. “We won, or so the official story goes, although who exactly we were and precisely what was won were not widely scrutinized.”
Landscapes Of War & Memory documents a disturbing trend in Canada’s rituals of remembrance with symbolic observances of ancient battles that have grown proportionately as the number of eyewitnesses declined. Real veterans with real anecdotes make a poor backdrop for propaganda. When 17 Canadian veterans of the First War held their last reunion in France in 1998 not a single TV network ran live coverage. The Globe & Mail buried the story on page 12. When they held a remembrance ceremony at the Vimy Memorial in France in 1956 only two people showed up, a caretaker and an MP who happened to be passing through town.
By 2007, when all Vimy eyewitnesses were safely dead, CBC-TV produced a docudrama The Great War that saw Justin Trudeau play an officer with Princess Patricia’s Light Infantry, and assigned re-enactors to scramble up a Vimy landscape shouting, “Vive le Canada!” Sherrill expresses unease with such “pandering.” Whe writes: “I remain unconvinced that one battle can or should be given such status and become the time and place that our nation came of age or, indeed, that Canada’s myth of origins lies in the blood and loss – even the courage – of soldiers in war.”
Then-Prime Minister Robert Borden never thought so. “Canada got nothing out of the war except recognition,” he wrote. “The war is the suicide of civilization.”
Professor Sherrill examines this ritual of remembrance over a 30-year period, citing hundreds of Canadian poems and films, novels, memoirs and documentaries. “I am invited to legitimate the making of a myth that, as these kinds of narratives always do, leaves huge blanks in the landscape of memory,” she writes.
“If Canadians hope to understand who and where they are in this century, then an honest debate about the past is essential,” she writes. “If the works of art about either war tell us anything, it is this: we must work at remembering so we can create – and continue to create – a landscape of memory that sustains us, that is as alive, as complete, as powerfully informing, and as ongoing as possible.”
By Holly Doan
Landscapes of War & Memory: The Two World Wars in Canadian Literature and the Arts, 1977-2007, by Sherrill Grace; University of Alberta Press; 600 pages; ISBN 13978-17721-20004; $49.95
