Liberal political aides have misled Canadians on pandemic management, the Commons health committee was told..Blacklock’s Reporter cited internal emails by James Fitz-Morris, a former CBC reporter now working as director of communications to the Minister of Public Works..“The government’s response to these damning documents has been to blame the public service,” said Alberta Conservative MP John Barlow (Foothills)..“It was revealed that certain staff of the Public Works Minister’s office discussed delaying the scheduled release of information in hopes that more favourable numbers in terms of personal protective equipment would come.”.The emails were first reported by Global News. Fitz-Morris and coworkers last June 25 schemed to skew figures that misrepresented the number of high-grade N95 masks the department had purchased from China suppliers..Of 10.9 million masks bought from one contractor, a total 9.8 million failed quality checks..“What if we were to hold the chart until Tuesday and release it with the Minister’s next update and hope a few more N95s (arrive) in the meantime?” wrote a colleague..“Crazy enough it might just work,” replied Fitz-Morris..“If journos ask where it is, we can say that (Saint Jean Baptiste Day) delayed some reporting so we are holding to early next week which also has the benefit of being mostly true!”.MP Barlow expressed astonishment at the emails.. Screen-Shot-2021-02-15-at-10.58.03-AMCourtesy Blacklock’s Reporter .“Mostly true!” he told the health committee..“We’ve had two ministers before this committee on record to say their government has been transparent with Canadians during the pandemic, whether it is bad or good news,” said Barlow..“We now know that is false. Politically inconvenient facts have been purposely let out of the public domain. The pattern has started to emerge.”.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on February 5 told reporters his cabinet was committed to transparency. His remarks came after a reporter for Vice Magazine told the Prime Minister: “You yourself had promised once upon a time to reform Access To Information.”.“Were you lying back then or were you naïve to the realities of government?” asked the reporter..“I thank you for the work you’re doing,” replied Trudeau..“I thank you for the pressure you keep pushing on us because we need to continue looking to do better and increase Canadians’ confidence in our democracy. We’ve seen what happens when leaders don’t respect the media, don’t believe in transparency and openness.”.“There is always more we can do,” said Trudeau..Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com.TWITTER: Twitter.com/nobby7694
Liberal political aides have misled Canadians on pandemic management, the Commons health committee was told..Blacklock’s Reporter cited internal emails by James Fitz-Morris, a former CBC reporter now working as director of communications to the Minister of Public Works..“The government’s response to these damning documents has been to blame the public service,” said Alberta Conservative MP John Barlow (Foothills)..“It was revealed that certain staff of the Public Works Minister’s office discussed delaying the scheduled release of information in hopes that more favourable numbers in terms of personal protective equipment would come.”.The emails were first reported by Global News. Fitz-Morris and coworkers last June 25 schemed to skew figures that misrepresented the number of high-grade N95 masks the department had purchased from China suppliers..Of 10.9 million masks bought from one contractor, a total 9.8 million failed quality checks..“What if we were to hold the chart until Tuesday and release it with the Minister’s next update and hope a few more N95s (arrive) in the meantime?” wrote a colleague..“Crazy enough it might just work,” replied Fitz-Morris..“If journos ask where it is, we can say that (Saint Jean Baptiste Day) delayed some reporting so we are holding to early next week which also has the benefit of being mostly true!”.MP Barlow expressed astonishment at the emails.. Screen-Shot-2021-02-15-at-10.58.03-AMCourtesy Blacklock’s Reporter .“Mostly true!” he told the health committee..“We’ve had two ministers before this committee on record to say their government has been transparent with Canadians during the pandemic, whether it is bad or good news,” said Barlow..“We now know that is false. Politically inconvenient facts have been purposely let out of the public domain. The pattern has started to emerge.”.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on February 5 told reporters his cabinet was committed to transparency. His remarks came after a reporter for Vice Magazine told the Prime Minister: “You yourself had promised once upon a time to reform Access To Information.”.“Were you lying back then or were you naïve to the realities of government?” asked the reporter..“I thank you for the work you’re doing,” replied Trudeau..“I thank you for the pressure you keep pushing on us because we need to continue looking to do better and increase Canadians’ confidence in our democracy. We’ve seen what happens when leaders don’t respect the media, don’t believe in transparency and openness.”.“There is always more we can do,” said Trudeau..Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com.TWITTER: Twitter.com/nobby7694
