MacKay's tangled web - - -
macksamillion
worse than an untrained dog.
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MacKay's tangled web
Susan Riley, The Ottawa Citizen - December 11, 2009
Defence Minister Peter MacKay is a personable, good-looking, hard-working minister with a
besetting flaw.
When caught in a tight spot, he has a tendency to change ground without apology, or even a
blush. As a result, he suffers what might be charitably called a trust deficit -- and it
pre-dates this week's unpleasantness over Afghan detainees.
Dissembling, distorting and spin are, lamentably, part of politics and have been forever.
But MacKay's distortions are particularly blatant. He has a tendency to passionately
advocate for some position, then, when contradicted by fact or logic, to lash out at
opponents like a shrill boy backed into a corner.
The most memorable example of MacKay's unsteadiness is his betrayal of David Orchard in
2003. To secure leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party, he made a deal with
Orchard -- he wouldn't encourage a merger with Stephen Harper's Canadian Alliance -- and,
in return, Orchard's loyal delegates vaulted MacKay to victory over Jim Prentice. Within
months of this promise, made public by Orchard, MacKay was meeting with Harper to discuss
a merger -- selling out not only Orchard, who is widely considered a gadfly, but legions
of PCs who wanted nothing to do with the Reform/Alliance crowd.
Whatever the merits of the eventual merger -- and it did re-invigorate Canadian
conservatism, just as it gave MacKay new prominence -- the double-dealing left a bad
taste. Cynics shrug that politics is not a game for those with tender consciences and
MacKay is not the first politician to say one thing and do another. But this was a
breathtakingly public display of faithlessness.
Another well-chronicled deception was less serious, but equally brazen. In a poisonous
off-mic exchange in the Commons in 2006, MacKay referred obliquely to his once-girlfriend,
Belinda Stronach, as a dog. A number of reporters and MPs heard the remark, and instantly
understood its meaning, but MacKay never owned up. His insult could be spun as an
understandable, if crude, expression of anger at being betrayed. That isn't the point.
Rather than apologizing for an intemperate outburst, he stonily denied ever making it. His
credibility took another hit.
These incidents both pale, however, beside MacKay's daily evasions on the Afghan detainee
file. His tendency to bluff his way out of trouble with hysterical counter-attacks and
bald-faced denials has helped turn what might have been a minor kerfuffle into a major
embarrassment for government. All he (or someone) had to say was that, in the confusion
and chaos of war, the treatment of Afghan detainees was only one of many pressing issues
facing a government that was understaffed on the ground, and an army working in an
unfamiliar and hostile environment.
In retrospect, we're sorry we didn't sort it out sooner. We should have followed the
example of the British and the Dutch (who were far more scrupulous in tracking their
detainees). Here's why we didn't. But the problem is fixed now. That wouldn't satisfy
everyone, but many Canadians -- who have scant sympathy for Taliban suspects and abiding
respect for the troops -- would have accepted it. Crisis defused.
Instead, MacKay (and the prime minister) accuse opponents of impugning the reputation of
the troops -- more desperately as their carefully contrived defences crumble. This is not
only untrue, it is deplorably cowardly. MacKay and Harper are hiding their own political
mistakes behind the valour and professionalism of Canada's forces.
Now the minister is denying he ever attacked whistle-blower Richard Colvin personally and
insists that he never used the words "Taliban dupe." But he did disparage Colvin for
relying on the word "of people who throw acid into the faces of schoolchildren" --
implying that the diplomat's sources were exclusively Taliban fanatics.
That said, the weasel words, wilful blindness and savage partisanship that characterize
the government's response has been a "whole-of- government" effort, from surprisingly
incurious generals and senior bureaucrats, to timely leaks to friendly journalists, to
Transport Minister John Baird's rabid, random, verbal flame-throwing.
This whole flimsy edifice of narrowly-correct claims -- notably that there was never a
"proven" incident of Canadian-transferred detainees being tortured -- blew up this week
with Gen. Walter Natynczyk's surprising admission. The chief of defence staff acknowledged
newspaper reports of a 2006 incident, in which Canadian soldiers turned a captive over to
Afghan police and had to rescue him after he was beaten.
This left MacKay exposed so he shifted responsibility: how could he be expected to know
about this incident, when his chief of defence staff didn't?
Now there are calls for MacKay's resignation, but Harper will not want to risk a backlash
in Atlantic Canada (or admit that the minister was only following orders). Still, MacKay
may be moved to a lower-profile ministry in some future shuffle.
For now, he will survive with his reputation intact. That, of course, is his problem.
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