The Sixth Estate

Don’t Expect Much From Mayrand’s Testimony

March 26th, 2012

There’s been a great hullabaloo recently about the fact that the Conservatives have scheduled Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand’s testimony for a period when most journalists in Ottawa, we are repeatedly told by the news media, will be in lock-up receiving a special confidential briefing on the budget.

This self-serving pandering cuts two ways, of course. It’s not as if the RCMP are going to lock up every journalist in Ottawa and force-feed the budget summary to them. Unlike Sixth Estate, some major news organizations have two or even three full-time journalists. From time to time they can call on these vast resources to cover two separate events at the same time, and this is one situation where they would be well advised to do so.

More to the point, people who think the testimony has been pushed into a quiet and easily overlooked setting are kind of missing the point. If Mayrand really did have something explosive to say to the committee that would implicate the Conservatives, they would simply not bring him into the Committee in the first place. If he had something explosive to say about an Opposition party, they would schedule the hearing at a more convenient time and place. Ergo, the reason this is being “covered up” is much more mundane: they don’t want any awkward questions raised about why Elections Canada apparently has nothing to show for their eight-month-long investigation of Pierre Poutine, or of Poutine’s accomplices in 100 other ridings.

Nor is the question of in camera hearings an issue. Although the Conservatives have now shut down public access to the majority of important Parliamentary proceedings, I can pretty much guarantee you that this one will be wide-open. Consider:

If Mayrand reveals incriminating evidence in an in camera hearing, the Opposition MPs will simply leak it the moment they’re out the door. Yes, it’s illegal, and yes, it could earn them a contempt of Parliament ruling. One or more them will happily accept that rebuke if it means an opportunity to severely embarass the government.
If Mayrand doesn’t reveal incriminating evidence in an in camera hearing, the Opposition MPs will announce the moment they’re out the door that they wish they could share Mayrand’s important testimony with the public, but unfortunately the Conservatives have outlawed them from doing so. One or more of them will make this statement, and the Conservatives can’t rebut them without leaking privileged material themselves.

For the Conservatives, an in camera hearing can’t be spun to their advantage, and an incriminating hearing can easily be prevented. So what will happen is a non-incriminating public hearing. In short, a whitewash. The appropriate provisions for watching this hearing will be a blanket and a pillow, not a bag of popcorn.

9 Responses to “Don’t Expect Much From Mayrand’s Testimony”

Saskboy

You’ve been right thus far, so I’ll take your word for it.
I’d like to think that something important will come out (and maybe bits will), but the most important thing that could be done should not wait for a committee, it should simply begin with charges being pressed against Poutine and accomplices that have been uncovered by investigations thus far. It’s obscene there are no charges, 10 months later. If a bank were robbed, and they had the suspects narrowed down to fewer than a dozen people, they’d have made someone squeal within a week, but the whole country has been robbed of a fair $350M election, and they need 10 months to tell us they have no confidence in any charges they might lay?

March 26th, 2012 at 9:00 pm

Sixth Estate

I’d like to think something important will happen too, but it just doesn’t make logical sense. If the Conservatives think Mayrand would say something incriminating, they wouldn’t let him say anything at all. If they thought he was going to incriminate someone other than them, they would have the allegations made in as open a forum as possible. So the logical outcome is that he isn’t going to say much of anything.

There is, of course, an alternative possibility, which is that Mayrand is behaving himself and being a responsible Chief Electoral Officer, in which case the Conservatives have no idea what he’s going to say and that’s made them nervous enough that they’ve moved his testimony to a time when exposure would be minimal. But that returns us to scenario A, where they simply block his testimony to begin with. Mayrand can’t force the committee to hear his testimony if a majority don’t want him to appear.

March 26th, 2012 at 10:47 pm

Mogs

“Prime Minister nominates next Chief Electoral Officer
9 February 2007
Ottawa, Ontario

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is pleased to announce the nomination of Mr. Marc Mayrand as the new Chief Electoral Officer.” From:

http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/media.asp?id=1529

This was pre planning on Harper’s part, mark my words nothing is going to come of this, he didn’t like Jean-Pierre Kingsley, because he was doing his job and found the harper-cons guilty of election law.

In order for a by-election to be called, an elector in a specific riding would have to prove to a federal judge that the number of electors affected by the robocalls was greater than the number of votes that separated the winner and the second-place candidate.

“If you’re able to demonstrate that, the judge will say a by-election must be called,” Kingsley said.

Mayrand is probably Harper’s b***h, oh well!

March 26th, 2012 at 11:29 pm

P. D. Carswell

From Glen McGregor:

Mayrand isn’t conducting the #robocalls investigation. It’s led by Comm of Elections William Corbett, who hasn’t been invited to #PROC.

Apparently the investigation is being led by Corbett, along with retired members of the RCMP.

We’re doomed, of course.

March 27th, 2012 at 9:22 am

P. D. Carswell

On the other hand, it will be televised, and look at the topic:

Allegations of Wrong-Doing during the 41st General Election

http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=5472284&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=41&Ses=1

AND:

Robocalls: Activist group files legal challenge of results in seven ridings

http://www.canada.com/news/Robocalls+Activist+group+files+legal+challenge+results+seven+ridings/6362995/story.html#ixzz1qLCUneOn

March 27th, 2012 at 9:54 am

Sixth Estate

P.D. — Thanks for the links. The new lawsuits have already been entered onto the Sixth Estate master list.

Mayrand’s job is to oversee elections. Corbett’s job is to investigate allegations of election fraud. Corbett works under Mayrand, but it’s doubtful how much information about the actual investigation Mayrand will have, or how much of that he would feel able to share. Which is why I doubt we’ll hear anything of significance. The title of the hearing is entirely genuine: there are allegations of wrongdoing during the 41st general election. Call it “Evidence from the Electoral Officer of Wrong-doing….” and I’ll pay more attention.

I am happy to see my prediction that it would be public appears to be coming true.

March 27th, 2012 at 10:51 am

One Piece At a Time | Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff

[...] Sixth Estate [...]

March 28th, 2012 at 4:50 am