Blame falls far from top in Ottawa

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(CP)

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Six federal bureaucrats were drafted to pose as new Canadians for a ceremony telecast on Sun News. Jason Kenney (above) wouldn't take responsibility for the charade. (CP)

Thank goodness. We thought the whole thing was Jason Kenney's fault.

Ottawa is aflutter with revelations the federal Immigration Department staged a phoney citizenship ceremony for broadcaster Sun News, carried on their cable news channel last October.

In that ceremony, a judge had 10 newly minted Canadians reaffirm their citizenship oath in the Sun News studio in Toronto. It would have been quite a coup, save for one small problem.

Documents obtained by the Canadian Press through the Access to Information Act confirmed six of the 10 new Canadians were actually department bureaucrats, called into service when real new Canadians could not be found. No, not a citizenship ceremony, but a remarkable simulation. Except nobody was told it was a fake.

In emails obtained by CP, the bureaucrats in question warn Sun News and staff in Kenney's office they cannot find enough new citizens willing to reaffirm. Sun News, however, refuses to settle for covering a dozen real citizenship ceremonies. Too long, too boring and too far away from the climate-controlled paradise that is the Sun News studio. So, that's when body doubles were called into service.

The fact Sun News would ask for, and receive, the co-operation of Kenney's staff for this charade is hardly a game-breaking story. No, it's really more of a humiliating, humorous anecdote and would be unworthy of any serious analysis.

Except Kenney's reaction raised a more serious concern.

In the House of Commons, Kenney admitted the whole event was "poorly handled." By whom, Kenney would not say; he did not take responsibility himself and did not name names. But a day later, a Kenney staffer went on Sun News to apologize to -- wait for it -- Sun News and make it clear exactly who was responsible.

According to Candice Malcolm, a spokeswoman for Kenney, it was clearly the result of bureaucrats taking matters into their own hands and not informing the broadcaster or the minister's office of what they had done. "Instead of telling our office and telling Sun (News), they decided to send their own civil servants to fill in on the ceremony," Malcolm said, "and we weren't aware of it and we didn't actually find out until yesterday."

Kenney's staff, who continued to insist Sun News be given what it wanted despite repeated warnings the event was impractical, apparently bear no responsibility in this humiliating mess. Nor, it seems, does the minister. This might be dismissed purely as evidence of a lack of character, except at its very heart it suggests a larger problem.

Namely, the unwillingness of a minister of the Crown to take responsibility for a screw-up on his watch.

Ministerial responsibility is -- or perhaps more correctly, was -- a sacred tradition in parliamentary democracy. This is the premise that suggests a minister is supposed to be accountable for all that happens in his or her portfolio, good or bad. One must wonder if, as demonstrated in this sorry incident, ministerial responsibility has fallen out of fashion in Ottawa.

Opposition parties know all about ministerial responsibility. Every time something goes wrong in government, opposition critics ask ministers to resign because the mistake happened "on their watch." It was not so long ago the Tories were in opposition and were making those demands. Being in government certainly changes your perspective, no?

In this case, Kenney sneezed and the whole bloody department caught a cold. Political staff sent a message down the chain of command, clearly indicating the minister wanted Sun News to have their very own ceremony, regardless of practical concerns. Now, Kenney and his spokespeople are condemning civil servants for going too far to meet those demands.

The lack of ministerial responsibility is hardly a Conservative affliction. Long before the Tories took office, the Liberals had started well down the road of denying knowledge of, and absolving themselves of responsibility for, gaffes big and small. When the federal sponsorship program in Quebec went horribly wrong, and clear evidence of fraud and misuse of funds was apparent, then Liberal cabinet heavyweight Alfonso Gagliano denied any knowledge of the misdeeds and tried quickly to turn attention to his bureaucracy. When the Gomery Commission report came out in 2005, it was clear Gagliano knew more and had done more than he had claimed.

Adscam and Sun News-gate are in no way similar in size, scope or political importance. After all, the former helped in large part to bring the Liberals down in the 2006 federal election. The latter is little more than a YouTube sensation.

But both incidents are part of a continuum, a growing trend where ministers of the Crown, like Italian cruise ship captains, never seem to find a good reason to go down with their ships.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 4, 2012 A12