FOR A federal government notorious for trying to control the message and get it “right,” the Harper Conservatives certainly are not good at it.
The communications flowing out of Ottawa around the 2008 fatal listeria outbreak and its aftermath are a case in point.
Let’s begin at the end.
A complaint from the beginning about Sheila Weatherill’s investigation into what caused the food borne illness outbreak that killed 22 Canadians was that she was not independent enough to hold the government to account.
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She was appointed by prime minister Stephen Harper, housed in an Agriculture Canada building, used staff borrowed from government departments and agencies she was investigating, did not have powers to subpoena witnesses, conducted the inquiry in private and reported to agriculture minister Gerry Ritz, a key player in the government response.
Weatherill and Ritz insisted there was no political interference.
On July 20, Weatherill issued a statement to the media indicating she had submitted her report to Ritz and would speak about it publicly the next day.
“As the independent investigator, I felt a strong obligation to find out the circumstances and factors contributing to this preventable incident,” she said. “I have been able to conduct my investigation independently and impartially. There has been no interference whatsoever.”
Two hours later, a new message came out, clearly revised by government message-control agents.
The “preventable incident” had become an “outbreak.” All references to non-interference from the government were gone, a clear case of interference from the government.
Weatherill lamely explained later that it was a “technical” issue because the English version did not agree with the French version so had to be revised. Everyone believed her, of course.
It was an appropriate end to a disastrous communications effort that the government conducted throughout the episode.
Weatherill laid it out well.
The government had no co-ordinated and consistent plan to get relevant information out during the crisis when Canadians were dying and many wanted to know what was happening, what foods were risky and who was most at risk.
There was confusion about which government agency should take the lead in communicating with Canadians, and ultimately Ritz became the point man instead of the Public Health Agency of Canada. Weatherill saw that as a mistake because Canadians wanted information from a health expert.
There was confusion in the message because there was no crisis communications plan in place despite libraries filled with manuscripts about credible, timely, honest and accurate communications being a key ingredient of crisis management.
As minister responsible for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency that had failed to prevent the crisis, Ritz was seen by many as having a conflict as main contact. He had a credibility problem long before his unfortunate private joke about death from a thousand cold cuts became election fodder.
From start to finish, the communications effort was a fiasco.
The Harper government’s cleverness in controlling the message to its own advantage has been seriously exaggerated.
