Beyond The Commons

 Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

The case of the missing binder (II)

by Aaron Wherry on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 12:16am - 35 Comments

Excerpts from the Prime Minister’s press conference on the evening of May 26, 2008.

“… this afternoon I received and I accepted Minister Bernier’s resignation from the Cabinet. Minister Bernier has learned and informed me that he left a classified government document in a non secure location. This is a serious error. The Minister has accepted his responsibilities in offering to resign.

“This is about one thing, and that is a failure to uphold expected standards on government documents. It is a very serious mistake regardless of who the Minister is, regardless of personal life, to leave classified documents in an unsecured location. And this is a serious error. The Minister has recognized this error himself and offered to resign.

“Let me just be very clear about this. This is not to do with the Minister’s private life or the life of a private citizen. 99% of which I think is completely off bounds. I don’t think it matters who a Minister is dating. I don’t think it matters anything about the private life of some private citizen. What matters here is that rules respecting government classified documents were broken.

“It obviously was not done on purpose. It was a mistake. But it doesn’t matter. It was clearly done and that has to be treated appropriately. There are precedents and this obviously is a warning to all Ministers.”

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  • Harbles

    " Wow, it’s been quite a day on the liveblogging front — from Ottawa courthouse to a committee room, we cover the waterfront here at ITQ. "

    And we're glad you do.

    P.S.
    And again many thanks to the IT deities that have provided all the bells and whistles for the benefit of the comment community. U Rock.

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/Sir_Francis Sir_Francis

      CR:

      Is the orientation of your avatar to be interpreted vexillologistically, as a distress signal, or is it yet another absurd IntenseDebate glitch?

      • http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

        My avataristic orientation has multiple layers of meaning, and you have identified two of them. It is meant to be interpreted as a vexillologistic distress signal and as a metaphorical representation of an ID glitch. ;-).

        • http://intensedebate.com/people/Sir_Francis Sir_Francis

          Weird. The "Most Read/Most Recent/Comments" sidebar indicates you've posted two comments in the last hour, when you seem to have posted only one. More glitchiness, I suppose…

          Also, why do some of us (like me) get an automatic +1 when we comment? Is that just for being such an exemplary human being?

  • ARX

    The precedent seems quite clear, so one would expect nothing less than a dismissal from Cabinet over this. Of course, that was my thought before I clicked her name tag to see previous posts about her, and realised she's the one who beat Garth Turner, and as Aaron pointed out in Nov, she has the honour of sitting in the Rona Ambrose Memorial Chair. Natural Resources has never struck me as a terribly high profile Cabinet position, except now we have the Chalk River situation, which she's in charge of, and her quick ascension into Cabinet indicates the Tories regard her as something of a star. My cynical suspicion is that some unknown staffer will fall on their sword to protect her, especially since the Opposition is going to want her resignation, and Harper would never give them such a victory, particularly during this new isotope crisis.

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

      Odds are that the document belonged to a staffer, if there were several staffers present but only one minister. So if a staffer gets canned, it may not be a case of someone "falling on their sword", it may actually be a case of someone being fired for cause.

      • ARX

        Definitely very possible, Crit_Reasoning, but in the end, this seems to be the sort of event in which the Minister herself should have to take ultimate responsibility. The impression I got from the news report was that it was a Ministerial briefing package or something of the like, certainly meant for her, even if it was in the hands of one of her aides.

        Do we know why the documents were ever even taken to a news studio? Seems to be the last place one should take secret documents in any case.

        • Critical Reasoning

          If it was one of Raitt's aides, then the responsibility lies solely with the aide.

          I would hardly expect the minister to resign, just because one of her staffers carelessly left behind a briefing package that included (OMG!) some nominally "secret" budget numbers for Chalk River and other facilities.

          Hopefully this doesn't turn into another one of those pointlessly partisan tempests in a teapot. Canadians have more important things to worry about.

          • Michael

            Budget numbers shouldn't be secret, and they shouldn't be released through utterly incompetent record keeping either.

            The biggest question in all of this is why the Minister was hiding budget numbers from Canadians?

      • http://intensedebate.com/people/OntarioTown OntarioTown

        Typical – it's always someone else's fault. Attack the little staffer.

  • Kat

    CTV is reporting "Some of the papers are clearly marked "secret."

    Then they go on to report the info from some of the documents. Is it not illegal to read "secret' documents if you don't have a "secret clearance"?

    I wonder. I also wonder what I would do if I happened to stumble across government documents. Ha! Who am I kidding, I would look.

    • Critical Reasoning

      We're not even sure if the documents were officially classified. The pages in the binder that marked "secret" may have been stamped that way by a PMO clerk simply because they contained politically sensitive information such as one of those legendary Conservative Talking Point memos. It could be a far cry from officially classified information.

      • http://bcinto.blogpot.com BCer in Toronto

        So you're alleging Conservative staffers are deliberately flouting government policy and regulations governing the classification of documents? That's not exactly a better scenario, and it's certainly one that would require an investigation and possible disciplinary action.

        You can't just classify documents at will. You do what Dick Cheney did and make up your own meaningless but official sounding classification, and get a stamp at kinko's.

  • ARX

    Ordinarily, I'd agree, Critical Reasoning, but for the fact the documents remained in CTV's hands for a week, without being missed. Now ignoring the question of who left it there, and whether these documents really merit such a designation, secret documents were taken to and then left in the hands of the media for a week, without being noticed as lost. I'd tend to hold hold the Minister responsible for running such a poorly managed operation.

    We definitely disagree on this, but it'll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow. I think the Opposition should quite rightfully call for her resignation or dismissal, if she hasn't already done so, and attack this government for yet another display of appalling incompetence.

    • Critical Reasoning

      I'm sure the Opposition will call for her resignation tomorrow, and it will be as relevant and meaningful as the bleatings of a herd of sheep.

      Meanwhile, vast issues loom before us, and instead of doing their duty to hold the Government accountable, the Opposition will be trying to score cheap political points by harping about what would otherwise have been nothing but he trivial brain fart of some poor ministerial aide.

      In the end, it will be forgotten in 36 hours and the only real consequence will be shattered existence of the careless staffer.

      • E.B.

        If we track back to the Linda Keen 'episode', I hope we would find similar comments in defense of her, CR.

        vast issues; government accountable; cheap political points; harping.

        Surely this is a case of what goes around, comes around. If (when) the opposition pursues this, it is just the natural progression and response to the way the Government's action the last time there were problems at Chalk River.

        It is unfortunate, but this is the way the game is played.

      • Cam

        "vast issues" like amount of time out of Canada? Give me a break, apologist.

        • http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

          No, "vast issues" like the Government mishandling of Chalk River, rather than a staffer's mishandling of a binder.

  • http://www.canadianrosebud.blogspot.com rockfish

    Glad to hear CR is standing to Raitt's defence. Certainly some facts need to surface before haste is taken, but its hard not to see this not costing someone high up their job. Was the minister not at the TV station? Why were secret documents brought there – were they intentionally left? Seems just another proof of a proof that incompetence is rife in the CON cabinet.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Sir_Francis Sir_Francis

    This is not to do with the Minister’s private life or the life of a private citizen. 99% of which I think is completely off bounds…

    …and the remaining 1% does not include whether a minister of the Crown has been boffing someone with ties to one of North America's most violent and sophisticated arms of organised crime.

    I don’t think it matters who[sic] a Minister is dating…

    …or whether a "brilliant" prime minister knows how to use the objective case, a skill we expect of our Seventh Graders.

    …this obviously is a warning to all Ministers…

    …that you'll be rusticated from Cabinet, after weeks of media-massaging equivocation, if you're an expendable Ken-Doll nonentity who was briefly exalted only because his party needed to pander to a province they have since written off.

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack_Mitchell

      LOL, Sir Francis, that was awesome.

  • Nothern PoV

    Harper was so happy to have the missing docs excuse to get rid of his embarrassing Lothario – "nothing to see here, move along". His "precedent" comment was meant to give that bit of flim-flam the required gravitas.

    Now that his beautiful blond superstar minister (and Garth-slayer) is poised to walk the same plank he must be scrambling for new precedents, no?

    And all this while his Lothario is the only Con beloved by the dwindling band Con-supporters in Quebec. Indeed their amour for Lothario is a mirror image of how the rest of Canada (including most Quebecois) feel.

    ah the Schadenfreude….

    (PS My spell checker flagged "Quebecers" and replaced it with "Quebecois" … so that proves there must be a "nation" there somewhere. ;)

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/OntarioTown OntarioTown

    So, what took CTV so long to report it and why "clean up Liberal mess" reported? C'mon, this is fishy.

    Hello – Harper's been PM for "3-1/2 years" – taking responsibilities for his mess is way OVERDUE.

    CTV looking for funding? Geez, with the fancy, schmanzy new set up and all those negative conservative ads they must be rolling in money.

    • PolJunkie

      "CTV looking for funding? Geez, with the fancy, schmanzy new set up and all those negative conservative ads they must be rolling in money. "

      More like someone is looking for another Senate seat…

  • Dot

    CTV soon to report thye list of usual suspects like to drink candy martinis and wear hoodies.

  • Ted

    A three inch thick binder, hundreds and hundres of pages containing higly detailed complicated budget and technical specificates? Exactly. Why couldn't they just get through that in a few hours?

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Geiseric Geiseric

    There was a time confidential documents were individually marked and logged so one look at the list would tell you who the source was and someone would be getting walked out of the building before coffee break.

    maybe its was a cost saving measures at the PMO, or maybe they system was circumvented to set up a planned leak, or maybe they're just getting plain old slack

    but it is funny to know from looking at the pictures out of CTV that there's a batch of suits running around Ottawa this morning playing a game of "where's your copy".

    high school with money

  • E.B.

    I think I saw a photo posted on a website somewhere (but I forget exactly) that looked like the pages were identified with a number: 000008…

    • http://www.intensedebate.com/people/Geiseric Geiseric

      Seemed to me that was just a volume number and I looked for it but from what I saw even THAT wasn't carried page-to-page. Could be wrong. Its not like I got a good look.

      If they've been trying to squeeze out the experienced workers so they can run the show themselves, it looks like they did a pretty good job of it.

      HEY!!! an EDIT button!!!

      just want to add I get the distinct impression from looking at it the whole "secret" thing was just put there for dramatic effect. like I said, high school.

      may as well put that new-fangled edit button to good use: all this to say that binder has PMO written all over it. this little misadventure is actually nothing like the Bernier thing. unless, of course, someone managed to press the civil service into ferreting out what'd been lifted in compromising fashion from bona fide PCO confidentials.

  • Bazoo

    Anyone remember "dummy-mitts"? For those who don't know or don't remember, dummy-mitts were mitts which were attached by a 4 foot length of string. This length of string was put through the arms of a coat, and the loss of many mitt was thereby prevented. I would like to use this space now to hereby announce the invention of the Dummy-Document (patent pending). Yes, it is two binders connected by an adult sized length of string. Ok, this comment would've made a better cartoon :(

  • PolJunkie

    What I want to know is why oh why CTV sat on this one for a whole week. What is that about?

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack_Mitchell

    Yeah, it would be cool to have that fixed; or just to have an RSS feed of all comments at Maclean's (unless one already exists that I don't know about?). The automatic +1 seems to be a pat on the head from IntenseDebate for signing up.

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/Sir_Francis Sir_Francis

      The automatic +1 seems to be a pat on the head from IntenseDebate for signing up.

      Ah, yes: "Congratulations on becoming a somebody!". Splendid.

      The unregistered bohemians among us just don't know what they're missing…

  • Wotcher?

    Best quote so far, from Bob Rae:
    "Maybe she thought CTV was a branch of the government."

  • Critical Reasoning

    So far, all my predictions about "Bindergate" have come true. The careless aide responsible for Binder #0008 has been sacked.

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