I held off writing about the federal government contract worker who was arrested by the RCMP until there were a few more details.
27 year old Jeff Monaghan was arrested by the RCMP at the office Wednesday. I don’t think any one is questioning the arrest was designed for maximum effect - a perp walk to rattle and intimidate bureaucrats.
So, was this political or not?
The Conservative Party says one thing, the RCMP another.
But Conservative strategist John Reynolds argued that the government would not have been involved in the decision to arrest Monaghan.
“It wasn’t the government that sent the police to arrest him,” he said. “The police look at these things themselves and do what they do.”
Police said they received a complaint on April 17 that a secret draft copy of the climate change section of the government’s Eco-Action Plan had been leaked to the media and environmentalists.
it took the RCMP 21 days to find a temp who they allege took (the word leak doesn’t work here) information that did not jeopardize national security, damage individuals or co-workers, cause any financial harm to government, companies or individuals, put anyone in danger or do damage to Canada or Canadians. The information was openly used by media outlets around the country.
Leak: (n) a disclosure of secret, esp. official, information, as to the news media, by an unnamed source.
Monaghan got a temp job with Environment Canada through normal channels (not through government hiring) and his job was to monitor the media response to the current government.
So we don’t know his security clearance and what the terms and conditions of employment he agreed to when he took the job. What rights and obligations does a contractor have or the federal government have toward the contractor?
“An employee who violates the terms of their workplace security clearance, including the release of secret documents, may be subjected to legal consequences, including criminal charges,” RCMP Supt. Stan Burke — the officer in charge of financial integrity — said in a news release Wednesday.
Baird said the arrest was a signal to other government employees that leaks of information wouldn’t be tolerated.
He was a temp for four years, and took took a draft copy of the climate change section of the government’s Eco-Action Plan stamped secret and gave it to environmental groups and media.
Whose interests were served in using the law toward Monaghan? Is all information government information actually equal?
So, was this political or not?
The Conservative Party says one thing, the RCMP another.
But Conservative strategist John Reynolds argued that the government would not have been involved in the decision to arrest Monaghan.
“It wasn’t the government that sent the police to arrest him,” he said. “The police look at these things themselves and do what they do.”
In an initial statement, the Mounties said he was arrested on an allegation of breach of trust under the Criminal Code for leaking secret draft legislation.
But the RCMP later clarified their statement, saying the leak involved a “regulatory framework,” and not actual legislation.
PART IV: OFFENCES AGAINST THE ADMINISTRATION OF LAW AND JUSTICE Corruption and DisobedienceBreach of trust by public officer122. Every official who, in connection with the duties of his office, commits fraud or a breach of trust is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years, whether or not the fraud or breach of trust would be an offence if it were committed in relation to a private person.R.S., c. C-34, s. 111.Monaghan was not charged, he is not an official and after his release held a press conference on Parliament Hill. He did not admit, deny and read a statement outlining his agenda and beef with government actions because charges of breach of trust could still be laid. ( I can’t find a text of his news conference or video online) He was clear he had no use for the environmental policy, and was concerned about the way the government got involved in his arrest. He stated the potential charges were:
In his media conference Monaghan did not deny or confirm, he stated what he felt was partisan involvement in his arrest saying it was:
“… (a)profound threat to the public interest.” He said they’re part of a Tory communications strategy “pinned on secrecy, intimidation and centralization.”
“The spectacle of my arrest, the subsequent RCMP press release, and the prepared statements from Environment Canada, including minister Baird, have been crafted to bully public servants whom they, in a paranoid fit, believe are partisan and embittered,” Monaghan told a news conference.
He said the government has undermined its legal commitment under the Kyoto agreement on climate change, and tried to “fool the public” into thinking otherwise through a carefully crafted public relations strategy. He said Environment Canada officials he worked with dutifully went along with the strategy even when it crossed the line into partisan activities.
“Our society knows the threat presented by the changing climate, global warming, and the rapidly increasing growth of industrial emissions,” Monaghan said. “We deserve real action, not cynically calculated PR campaigns and witch-hunts on public servants.”
Are there not internal Human resource procedures for dealing with workplace issues and difficulties with legitimate employees and contractors? (As a contractor Monaghan is an outside worker and is not protected under government employee unions, benefits, union lawyers etc.)
I’ve not used the word ‘whistle-blower for Monaghan either. The person who gave the information to media and environmental groups made his reasons quite clear to the media and groups when the information was sent to them in April.
Monaghan made reasons clear in the news conference today.
A whistleblower is an employee, former employee, or member of an organization,
especially a business or government agency, who reports misconduct to people.
Monaghan is a self described anarchist:
anarchy: (noun) a theory that regards the absence of all direct or coercive government as a political ideal and that proposes the cooperative and voluntary association of individuals and groups as the principal mode of organized society.
Garth Turner (Liberal MP-Halton) brings up a famous 1989 budget leak and how then federal Finance Minister Michael Wilson and his staff chose to handle it.
Bloggers writing about Monaghan: Technorati (refresh for latest posts)
Some famous Canadian whistleblowers
History on Canadian government leaks is difficult to find.
Here is an example currently unfolding in the Tory government…Jeffrey Kroeker was a cabinet minister’s aide who was accused of leaking details of an overseas trip taken by a committee of Canadian senators. He was fully supported by his boss and other Conservatives. See The Globe and Mail story on Kroeker and the defense and rationalisation of support by Tory politicians.
Government elected leaders and their staff leak information all the time because it is in their political interest to do so. They don’t send the RCMP after themselves.
What do you think?
Is Monagan a criminal?
Was this arrest heavy handed and appropriate?
How does this arrest affect hard working responsible government officals and legitimate whistleblowers?
How does it affect the Canadian voter?
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The arrest and media attention does seem a little bit over the top.
If this man is a known ‘anarchist’ then why was he hired in the first place? If he is a criminal then of course he should be charged.
The documents he leaked were not a threat to national security, just an embarrasment to the Conservative party.
Harper promised open government and to protect whistleblowers. That very public spectacle will put a damper on any employee trying to expose the truth.
To the average Canadian who doesn’t understand all the inner workings of our government it simply appears that Harper once again is trying to control the media, the government and what the Canadian public should and should not see.
While that is probably not the case, most of us won’t investigate the details, we just see it as one more incident in Harper’s attempt to control.
At least they didn’t turn him over to the Afghans…
Seriously, this has the fingerprints of Harper’s control-freak personality all over it.
Of course if he’s an anarchist the temp agency should have screened him out and the government shouldn’t have hired him - that makes sense!
Well, you’re wrong about one thing. According to Monaghan, during the press conference he gave on Thursday, Monaghan was hired by the government, under the Liberals.
Furthermore, Monaghan noted that the method of his hiring was designed in order to “skirt government hiring policies”.
He has been working for four years, so yes he would have been hired under a Liberal government.
He was a contractor, whether he skirted government hiring practises or not.
Do you know what company hired him?
My letter to the Globe and Mail
Re: ‘Blow the whistle on this punk’, Rex Murphy and ‘It’s not overkill to seek the culprit’, Editorial, Saturday, May 12, 2007
Dear Editor and Rex Murphy:
Rex Murphy says, ‘Gushy feelings about the planet confer no moral authority whatsoever. It’s the elected crowd who get to decide things. It’s voters who decide who’s elected.’
Notable spokespersons and writers on climate change – Al Gore, Tim Flannery, George Monbiot and David Suzuki declare that our actions or inactions on the climate crisis are precisely a moral issue. Inaction or p.r. jobs such as the Harper/Baird plan which allows for continued increases of greenhouse gas emissions using ‘intensity targets’, will doom the poorest people on earth to loss - of their ways of life, their homes and their food through melting of both earth poles and glaciers, and drought in other places like Africa. Our inaction will also doom countless species to extinction – the largest extinction since the deaths of the dinosaurs.
As for the elected crowd and the voters – we have a problem due to first past the post election results. The actual majorities in Parliament are the opposition parties and they are all in support of the ‘Clean Air Act’ – amended by a Parliamentary committee to bring it into line with Kyoto, which does in fact represent voter wishes. Yet it will never see the light of day under the Harper/Baird Conservative minority government.
Rex Murphy and your editorial are in high dudgeon over Jeff Monaghan’s leak of the Harper/Baird plan. You need to start realizing that Jeff represents the tip of the iceberg of his generation and younger who have learned at elementary school to reduce, reuse and recycle, who have formed environmental groups in secondary school and taken environmental studies courses at University, while receiving the environmental message of David Suzuki, and a host of environmental groups – and noting the rapid degradation of the world they are inheriting – polluted air, water, soil, losses of forests, and ocean life, while elected democratic governments allowed the frittering away of precious resources on wars and SUV’s. Expect many more Jeff Monaghans.