There was a letter in last week’s issue titled “Party discipline is not a law.” The letter was a response to an opinion piece by Black Press columnist Tom Fletcher titled “The year of the independent MLA” that appeared on www.clearwatertimes on Dec. 29 but not in our print edition.
The letter, from Roy Poope of Summerland, argued that provincial MLAs Bill Bennett and Bob Simpson could take legal actions against their former parties for violating their freedom of speech as guaranteed under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Bennett, the MLA for East Kootenay, was removed from the position of Minster of Energy “for not acting like a team player.” He was later also taken out of the Liberal caucus. Simpson, the MLA for Cariboo North, was driven from the NDP caucus for criticizing the leadership of Carole James.
The letter writer has an interesting point but it hard to see how total freedom of speech could be reconciled with the need for party discipline within our parliamentary system of democracy.
Perhaps an easier place to start would be to give back more freedom of speech to government bureaucrats.
A couple of decades ago, if a reporter had a question he or she could call up almost any bureaucrat and get an intelligent discussion on the pros and cons on an issue. Not any more.
Now it seems that almost everyone (with a few exceptions) working for any level of government is afraid to talk to the media. Sometimes it takes years to develop a level of trust that a bureaucrat will talk to you, and then it usually is on the basis of it being off the record.
Usually what happens is, once you identify yourself as working for a newspaper, you are immediately referred to a media relations person, who typically is someone who knows even less about the issue than you do. You have to submit a list of questions for the media relations person to get answers to. That person will then consult with the higher-ups in the bureaucracy to make sure the information is consistent with the image of themselves they want to portray. Only then will you get a call back. If you have any follow-up questions, the whole procedure will begin again.
Public servants don’t work for the party in power. They work for us, the citizens and taxpayers of this country.
Their first duty should be to keep us, the people, informed about matters of importance.