As a sometimes-rowdy National Farmers Union president in the 1980s, Wayne Easter was accustomed to police watching him and creating files to record what he did or said.
As federal solicitor general in charge of those same police forces a decade ago, Easter was able to see some of the files they had compiled on him in his radical days.
But these days, as a seven-term Liberal MP with more than 18 years of House of Commons experience under his belt, Easter figures the days of being spied on and being recorded by authorities should be over.
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Yet whenever he tries to speak to an Agriculture Canada official, the call is monitored by a representative of the department or the minister’s office, Easter complained when agriculture minister Gerry Ritz was last at the House of Commons agriculture committee in March.
He complained that departmental staff are not allowed to speak to him without a political minder on the line to make sure the official is sticking to the government script.
“When I was president of the National Farmers Union, you could pick up the phone and call an official,” he told Ritz. “As an MP, I can’t get a call back from an official and I think that’s wrong.”
The way he phrased the question gave Ritz an out.
He has never told senior officials not to return calls, Ritz said.
That’s probably true, but it misses the main point.
Whether it is MP Wayne Easter or a lowly agriculture reporter, under this “control the message” government, no one gets to speak to a government specialist without a departmental minder on the line, presumably taping the conversation and making sure the official sticks to the party line.
They have their talking points. It is not close to a spontaneous interview or conversation.
Presumably for public servants, veering from the party line has consequences.
Late last year, Easter wrote to agriculture deputy minister John Knurly, who refuses media interview requests, to complain about the information control system.
“It has been my experience in contacting senior officials within Agriculture Canada that this individual was not permitted to speak directly to me in response to specific technical questions unless a member of the ministers’ political staff participated,” wrote Easter. “The participation of the political staff was limited to listening and taking notes of the conversation for the purpose, I have to assume, of conveying the contents of the conversation either directly to the minister or to the minister through senior political staff.”
The MP said he found it “disturbing and for the officials involved, no doubt intimidating.”
It also has been the reality for reporters for years. The days of interviews with officials without a departmental minder on the line listening in are long gone.
It is how it is, has been and no doubt shall remain.
In a political town where information is currency, this is a government that likes holding the keys to the vault.
