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

And best wishes for the future

by Aaron Wherry on Thursday, July 22, 2010 11:50am - 0 Comments

As a small parting gift on the occasion of his leaving the civil service after 34 years, Munir Sheikh was given his very own talking point.

“Our approach is about finding a better balance between collecting necessary data and protecting the privacy rights of Canadians,” the Tory “info-alert” said. “It is unfortunate that Mr. Sheikh did not share these objectives.”

Tags: census, Munir Sheikh, Statistics Canada

More by Aaron Wherry

guest

How many scientists, researchers, and experts must be sacrificed if they cannot swallow the Conservative ideology? Some truths cannot bend! Good for you, Mr. Sheikh.

http://intensedebate.com/people/bergkamp bergkamp

"How many scientists, researchers, and experts must be sacrificed if they cannot swallow the Conservative ideology?"

I am guessing lots will have to be sacrificed because our bureaucracy is lousy with liberals who for some reason believe general public cares what they think. They are employees, they should do what they are told, if they don't like it they can quit and should not receive any payoffs or golden handshakes.

"Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die"

Jenn_

Ahhh, similar to supporting the troops, is it? Go ahead and break international law, or in this case every tenet of your profession. Head down, mouth shut, and big brother will look after you . . . or send you careening under a bus, but that is for us to know, and you to find out.

Which is funny, because I thought you guys were the ones so deploring big brother? Isn't that what this is ostensibly about?

http://intensedebate.com/people/bergkamp bergkamp

"Premier Dalton McGuinty denies it was an abuse of power for his government to secretly approve sweeping new powers for police.

“I just think it’s in keeping with the values and standards of Ontarians,” McGuinty told the Toronto Star on Friday amid a battery of complaints from opposition parties, city councillors, civil libertarians and regular Torontonians that the new rules were kept secret and, some say, may go too far." TorStar, June 26, 2010

I especially love to be called a fascist by people who support/volunteer/work for a party that suspends our civil rights on a whim. You are projecting Jenn_ , and all you liberal and progressives, when you accuse others of fascist thought.

"Psychological projection or projection bias (including Freudian Projection) is the unconscious act of denial of a person's own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which are then ascribed to the outside world, such as to the weather, a tool, or to other people. Thus, it involves imagining or projecting that others have those feelings." Wiki

http://intensedebate.com/people/Jenn_ Jenn_

Oh man, you picked the wrong plank to mount your battle from.

I'm a Federal Liberal, not, repeat NOT a provincial Liberal. I think McGuinty handled this fiasco at least as poorly as everyone else involved.

But then, see, I can do that. I don't have to bow down to some "Whatever my Party says is Perfect" pseudo-God like you do. I can keep my own opinions on any number of issues, whether it is the opinion of my party or not.

But it is typical change the subject tactics of you righties (I'm starting to get the hang of blaming everyone because of something one supporter said) when you have nothing to rebut the substance of the comment. Your, I mean, You CONservatives' original comment is proven to be misleading, and you've (all) got nothing.
http://intensedebate.com/people/bergkamp bergkamp

"I'm a Federal Liberal, not, repeat NOT a provincial Liberal."

That's supposed to be better? The Liberal Party is the biggest abuser of civil rights in Canada.

"A commission of inquiry into police actions at APEC last November has revealed disturbing evidence of the prime minister's involvement in the violation of protesters' constitutional and human rights.

A concerted public relations campaign by the prime minister's office (PMO) has challenged the impartiality of the commission chair, putting the hearings on hold, and has led to the arrest of a protester on trumped-up charges, and pulled the public broadcaster's main television journalist from the story for alleged bias." Green Left, Nov 1998

"In October 1970, tanks roamed city streets and soldiers in full battle gear raided homes in their hunt for "terrorists." They were looking for the Front de libération du Québec; French Canadian nationalists who abducted a British diplomat and a Quebec minister. Some felt like they were living in a police state. How far would Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau go? "Just watch me," he said. Three days later he invoked the War Measures Act and a nation waited with civil liberties suspended." CBC Digital Archive

Emily

They are not called 'govt servants' or 'party servants' for a reason, they are 'public servants'…..because they serve a greater cause than current narrow political interests. The public. The country.

They ARE doing their job.
Jan

Sounding a little fascist there, bergkamp. The problem with you guys is not just ideaology – it's really confused ideaology.
Loraine Lamontagne

Can you give one example where the privacy of a respondent to a StatsCan census was violated?
http://intensedebate.com/people/BGLong BGLong

Right. They contain multitudes. Like this …

http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/07/20/tippl…
wsam

Exterminate the brutes!!

Bob

I voted for the Conservatives in 2004, 2006, and 2008. I was already leaning towards not voting in the next election. I can't believe the freakin' census has solidified that decision.

http://intensedebate.com/people/tobyornotoby tobyornotoby

You're a Conservative success story then Bob. If you turn away from participating altogether that's as good as voting for them, because they've created the wedge between you and any alternative.

Bob

If there was an alternative worth voting for, I would.

The fact remains there are a lot of sensible people who have voted for Harper's party in the past, and the fewer who do can't be a "success story" for them – because we'll end up with Iggy by default.

wilson

Unless you say that under threat of fine or jail,
it is not to be believed. Voluntary information is unreliable

http://intensedebate.com/people/Thwim Thwim

Still haven't figured out the difference between "anecdote" and "data", I see.

LaxAtlDfwYow

That's just disgusting. The man leaves with dignity, respects his legal obligations and the Cons slime and defame him.

Disgusting. Sickening. Expected.
http://intensedebate.com/people/WDM WDM

Putting the ass in classy.
Amateur Hour

Now they're accusing Mr. Sheikh of not valuing the privacy of Canadians! This is disgusting.

Statscan has rigorous privacy protections and is audited by the Privacy Commissioner. Now the CPC are defaming the man for abiding by his oath.

"By law, Statistics Canada must protect the confidentiality of the personal information contained in census questionnaires. Census personnel must take an oath of secrecy; any breach of this oath is punishable under the Statistics Act by a fine of up to $1,000 or a prison term of up to six months, or both. As well, only employees whose work requires it actually see the completed census forms. Names, addresses and telephone numbers are not entered into the census database used for dissemination of the information. Census data are stored on an internal isolated network that cannot be connected to any outside link or accessed by any person or organization outside of Statistics Canada."

Time to stop equivocating. Harper's team has gone off the rails, moving from the stubborn to the stupid to personal assaults on people who know better than they and actually take their commitment to serving Canadians seriously.

When a Harper supporter comes to your door, ask how they can support a liar and defamer. Then tell them you cannot support the deceitful SOB and slam it hard.
Dave

In the interests of preserving their privacy rights, Canadians can now contact the Conservative Party of Canada and demand that their personal information be expunged from CIMS, immediately.

Correct?
http://intensedebate.com/people/MostlyCivil MostlyCivil

“It is unfortunate that Mr. Sheikh did not share these objectives"

It is unfortunate that Mr. Clement is not more familiar with libel laws. Intimating that a statistician/economist does not protect the privacy of his data is so, unbelievably, actionable.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Ricard_S_Argent Richard_S_Argent

"Info-Alert" is the name given to missives sent out by the PMO right?

Jan

And they're just so subtle. And assume the population is stupid.
http://intensedebate.com/people/tobyornotoby tobyornotoby

But they mean it to be ironic given that there's precious little info, and we're only fooled if we're the opposite of alert. Inert?

http://intensedebate.com/people/SeanStok Sean

I understand many Canadians voted Conservative with the belief that they represented a comparatively lesser evil than other parties.

Such a belief may become increasingly difficult to maintain.
knick

Can there be any question now about why Question Period has become the brawling spectacle that it is?
http://intensedebate.com/people/Stewart_Smith Stewart_Smith

If I ever have anything good to say about Norman Spector, please someone remind me about this
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/spec…

I am really not certain I have every seen such an uncalled for smear. Great work Spector, time to crawl back under your rock.

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

Yes.

We have TOTALLY lost sight of what's best for the country when the public service is expected to confront the government publically.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Ricard_S_Argent Richard_S_Argent

I'm not even sure what he's driving at?

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

It took me a while to get his point, too. He's taunting Sheikh for staying out of the public eye.

ie

doing his job properly.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Ricard_S_Argent Richard_S_Argent

That's just ridiculous. Spector's point is that he doesn't have much of a point at all eh?

He's consistently been disappointing (so has the entire G&M political dep't to be honest)
Dave

Not just properly, but legally too.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Style Style

It's very clear – he's saying Munir Sheikh resigned because someone who wrote to a newspaper couldn't find him. Clearly, Mr. Sheikh wasn't meeting his professional oblgation to be present at every mailbox and so simply had to go.

Stewart_Smith

No, Spector is slimmy but perhaps too subtle. The best talking point that Clement has available is to claim Sheikh was advocating for a StatsCan Agency that is independent of government. It is a good talking point, because many at StatsCan probably believe that, and in the past week or so Clement has convinced the rest. This puts Sheikh into the convenient category of an unelected bureaucrat trying to wrestle power away from the rightous elected minister.

The fact is Clement lied not just about some statistics but about Sheikh. He explicitly said that Canadians should trust that Sheikh and the people who reported to him had stamped these options as equivalent to a mandatory census. Obviously when Sheikh put forward the options they came with an explanation that they were inferior to a mandatory census.

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

"The best talking point that Clement has available is to claim Sheikh was advocating for a StatsCan Agency that is independent of government"

But he didn't.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Style Style

Was Clement claiming that Stats Can was more independent than the rest of the professional public service? This seemed more like a politican claiming his decision was based on advice from the non-partisan public service. I don't see what Spector is getting at – is he suggesting Stat Can should be spun off from government? How would it have any mandatory surveys if that happened?

Andrew (not PorC)

Spector is a dispicable little troll. This is hardly the first time he's demonstrated a striking lack of character.

http://intensedebate.com/people/tobyornotoby tobyornotoby

Have we solved all the other issues in government that we now have time to create them where no problems existed previously?

Maybe we can find a better balance between governing and creating these pointless little ideological brushfires.

DianeG

This issue is certainly not a "little brush fire". There is a major ethical issue here. I hope voters will be able to understand the role of the public service and not be misled by the Conservatives shenanigans (that's the polite name for it).

wilson

The role of the ps is laid out in their Public Service Ethics committement:

'The public servant is committed to understanding the public interest as it is expressed through time.
The public servant fulfills the public interest by service to the elected government '

Perhaps the public service, media and Liberals need to be reminded
serving the public interest means servicing the elected government,
least they all get too big for their britches.

Emily

I think you failed reading comprehension. They are to work 'with' the govt to fulfill the public interest.

This does not require them to lie or deceive to suit the politics of the govt of the day.

wilson

They are to give sevice to the elected 'government of the day' and the objectives of that government.
Not the Liberal elites, nor the media, they serve the government of the day.

He quit because the did not agree with the governments objectives.
Fine, half of Canadians do agree.
http://intensedebate.com/people/MostlyCivil MostlyCivil

Or, he quit because the government publicly misrepresented his position, and his employment did not allow him to publicly refute that..

Depends on who you trust here. Tony, with a polotical agenda, or Civil Servant, who seems to have no party connections. (If he did, Dimitri would have already found and released them)

Out There

You are assuming that the Conservatives are interested in solving all the other issues in government. I'm not sure that they are.

The available evidence suggests that the Conservatives are mostly interested in gaining and keeping power. Actually governing the country appears to be secondary to this.

http://intensedebate.com/people/tobyornotoby tobyornotoby

Good point. Or maybe governing effectively is actually contradictory to achieving power.

Mike T.

It's like they had a cabinet meeting and Harper was like "the guy who can come up with a way to make us look even more petulant and misguided gets a prize."
John D

I caught Mr. Sheikh scurrying around looking in my windows last night. Said something about trying to count my bedrooms…
Sigh

That was especially nasty.
Loraine Lamontagne

Minister – please provide examples where the privacy of the census information provided by citizens to StatsCan was violated.

wsam

I have personnally voilated StatsCan data. 17 times during one memorable weekend, last year.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Halo_Override Halo_Override

Pics or it didn't happen.

Mark R

Sounds true to me. If I want to keep private information from stats canadagovernment and Mr. Sheikh wants to force that information from me. Well I guess he doesn't much care if I want to keep it private to me.

http://intensedebate.com/people/doug_rogers doug_rogers

The government enforces the rules, not Mr Sheikh.

Mark R

Yes but he desires to continue to have government to do so.

Andrew (not PorC)

Nothing's changing. The government will still force you to complete the short census.
http://intensedebate.com/people/doug_rogers doug_rogers

You've just hit my Don't Bother With Him list

http://intensedebate.com/people/A_logician A_logician

What is Harper trying to distract us from with this manufactured crisis?

Jan

Well, Carney has just said that the economy is slowing. That doesn't really fit in with Harper claims.

Emily

'Claims for jobless benefits in Canada took a surprising jump in May, rising for the first time in eight months'….which is surprising considering it's the start of construction season in Canada.

Not the time for the purchase of fighter jets shall we say.

Andrew (not PorC)

Nonsense. Military hardware is an extremely long-term spending decision, with a time horizon of decades. The purchase has more important legitimate openings for criticism that there is no need to stoop to 'we can't afford it' levels of nonsense.

Dave

And look – Statscan hinted in today's Daily that the economy is slowing, too.

wsam

His terrible haircut.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Be_rad Be_rad

http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/07/19/rotor…

wilson

The public servant is committed to working with the government of the day and to the stewardship of the state.

The public servant is committed to understanding the public interest as it is expressed through time. The public servant fulfills the public interest by service to the elected government

The public servant is committed to a continual process of learning and innovation through constant study and thoughtful, measured experimentation in order to enhance governance.

The public servant is committed to the process of personally evaluating commitments and whether they are adequate for evolving circumstances.
http://www.ipac.ca/PublicSectorEthics

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

damn Liberal flunkies, eh?
http://intensedebate.com/people/LaxAtlDfwYow LaxAtlDfwYow

Nice cherry-picking. I can do that too:

The public servant is committed to a continual process of re-evaluation of the existing conditions of democratic governance and the roles and responsibilities of the public service within that context.

The public servant is committed to cultivating a dialogue among peers and colleagues on values, ethics, actions, and inactions [sic].

The public servant is committed to a critical reflection of personal actions in light of past practices, government objectives, and the perspectives of peers.

A public servant is committed to observing the highest ethical standards, to maintaining objectivity and be free of conflicts of interest in discharging professional responsibilities.

In carrying out their responsibilities as professionals, public servants must exercise sensitive professional and moral judgments in all their activities.

http://intensedebate.com/people/MostlyCivil MostlyCivil

Top of the page, wilson. Perhaps you missed this part…

"They are committed to the highest degrees of integrity.
They are committed to deliver the best administration possible.
They are committed to fair and transparent governance, to delivering high quality services, to a stewardship of government funds that will maximize cost-effectiveness and for accountability.
Public servants are committed to the improvement of the policy-making and service delivery abilities of the state"

Slightly more relevant to the current situation, no? I like the cost-effectiveness point.

http://intensedebate.com/people/LaxAtlDfwYow LaxAtlDfwYow

I figured the dissonance over transparency and cost-effectiveness would make wilson's brain explode.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Stewart_Smith Stewart_Smith

It may have…. there is no evidence of a connection between brain and keyboard.

wsam

Maybe they are stupid and are assuming the population to be subtle.
danby

The British have a word for people who pull this kind of nasty crap – it means away from the shoreline.
Are you familiar with it?
wilson

Nice cherry pickin' yourself Lax .
So what we have is :

''Critical Reflection on Actions
The public servant is committed to a critical reflection of personal actions in light of past practices, government objectives, and the perspectives of peers.''

Upon reflection, because he did not agree with government objectives, he was then in the position of
not being of service to the elected government .

therefore
“It is unfortunate that Mr. Sheikh did not share these objectives.”
is wrongly being charactorized as an attack on Sheikh

Holly Stick

Typical Harperite conservative – commit a nasty smear and then lie about it.

http://intensedebate.com/people/MostlyCivil MostlyCivil

Holly, come now. Use of the word "typical" is indicitive of a generalization that has no place in civilized dialogue.

Place the responsibility for the statement at the feet of the one who makes it, not at the feet of a party of sub-type. Even among the most similar individuals, the narrowing down to "types" is inherently risky.

Amateur Hour

Claiming that a public servant doesn't believe in balancing the job of collecting statistics with "protecting the privacy rights of Canadians" is indeed a smear, especially as said public servant was the head of an organization bound by law to do just that and had sworn a personal oath to do just that.

You should give up smoking, wilson.

Lord Kitchener's Own

Even for a person of Mr. Sheikh's obvious class and integrity, there's still got to be a little voice at the back of his mind that now wishes that rather than maintain strict confidentiality and decorum as he did, that he'd just come right out and said "Tony Clement is a lying idiot, and no one in the current government has any idea what they're talking about!".

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

But it's like dealing with the mafia.

Family.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Halo_Override Halo_Override

While his silence speaks volumes, sometimes you have to raise your voice before the children will stop playing their games and listen.
Sigh

It's not too late.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Halo_Override Halo_Override

About as much class as one can fairly expect, given the source.
http://intensedebate.com/people/MostlyCivil MostlyCivil

After Spector's brutal fumble of the CBC Interview/CSIS "scandal" (and refusal to put forth a timely correction), I've stopped reading him. That's the best suggestion I have.