Privilege and Entitlement

Liberals caught lying by omission.

If people do not know who is in Cabinet, it is impossible to hold any government to account in a democracy.

Speaker Derek Bennett had no problem using the word “democracy” as he dismissed out of hand a question of privilege on Tuesday from the Opposition. The Pea Seas wondered whether John Hogan - health minister *and* Attorney General - had indeed quit Cabinet as he is supposed to do as a candidate to replace Andrew Furey as Liberal Party leader and Premier and as he seemed to say Monday. Bennett said it’s not up to him to decide who answers for the government, which is true, but ignored the point that Hogan was supposedly out of Cabinet and yet wasn’t.

John Abbott resigned from Cabinet on Tuesday as he announced he was a candidate. That’s what candidates for the top job are supposed to do. When John Hogan sat in the back benches of the government side of the House on Monday and told people he was stepping back from his Cabinet duties, they took that to mean the same thing.

Turns out Hogan is still in Cabinet, getting paid for his job but not doing the job. He scrummed outside the House on Monday accompanied by the Premier’s communications director. In the House Tuesday, acting Government House Leader Lisa Dempster said that Hogan was still in Cabinet. Dempster blew it off as nothing.

Hogan is still pondering his future, although by all signs the Premier’s Office, most of Caninet and many political staffers have already picked Hogan to replace Andrew Furey. No surprise at all, especially since Fred Hutton, their first choice, had blown off a few of his fingers and toes over controversial deals with friends of the government party.

Hogan told reporters on Monday that it’s "taken a little bit of time to certainly have some conversations with colleagues and, most importantly, my family. I still have to continue those conversations over the next couple of days to make sure that I reach the right decision for me, for my children.”

Hogan said he was “stepping aside” - as allnewfoundlandlabrador.com quoted Hogan - from his Cabinet jobs and House Leader position to let him think. As it turns out now, “stepping aside” and resigning are two different things even though one would not need to “step aside” only to balk and not run. Siobhan Coady, Steve Crocker, Bernie Davis, Andrew Parsons and God knows who else in Cabinet managed to make a decision or are still pondering their options while doing their jobs and getting paid for it.

The use of the words “stepping aside” is accurate but at the same time fundamentally deceitful since Hogan didn't explain what he meant clearly. The choice for vagueness appears deliberate. Young lawyers and political amateurs think this sort of thing is clever. The rest of us know it wrong because it is easy to misunderstand what people really mean. Playing with words is - to be clear - a very good example of lying by omission. Even by leaving out important information it is still lying. In the world of consent, which includes politics, playing with words in that way does not qualify as disclosure that would meet any standard of informed consent. It destroys trust, which is crucial in the relationship between leaders and the public.

To add to the shabbiness and dishonesty of the whole thing, acting House leader Lisa Dempster jumped to her feet after Bennett’s ruling and talked about Judy Manning, a cabinet minister briefly without a seat in the House during Paul Davis’ administration. We sat on the opposition benches, said Dempster, and asked about justice and public safety and had to look up in the gallery to see where Manning was.

The difference between Manning then and Hogan now is that Lisa and everyone else at the time knew who the Attorney General and Justice Minister was. Another member of the Cabinet, someone with a seat in the House, could speak for the government during Question Period but they knew who the minister was who collected the salary and did the job.

On Monday and for at least half of Tuesday, no one knew John Hogan was still the health minister and the government’s chief legal advisor except Hogan and his co-conspirstors. We did not know because the government’s chief legal officer had lied about his status as a Cabinet minister. His colleagues in Cabinet, including Dempster, as well as the Premier, the Premier’s staff, Hogan's advisors and campaign team all thought that was okay.

That smacks of arrogance rooted in entitlement, a misguided feeling that rules don’t apply to them. Not surprising given the low ethical standard the government has followed the last four and a bit years. But disappointing. Discouraging. Wrong.

“The privileges of a Member [of the legislature] are violated by any action which might impede him or her in the fulfilment of his or her duties and functions.” That is the view of the foremost parliamentary authority in Canada and appears in one form or another in decisions by Speakers in legislatures across Canada over many decades in answer to questions where a member has been hindered by someone in doing his or her job.

One of the members’ most important functions is to question the government in the House on maters of public concern. To do that accurately, fully, and honestly, on behalf of everyone in the province, one must know who is in Cabinet and who is not. John Hogan is still in Cabinet. He is getting paid to be a Cabinet minister. But Hogan and others let us believe he wasn't. There is nothing to stop him from doing his job at any time and as a candidate in all but name for the job, Hogan is able to take advantage of his position to further his campaign. That is an unworkable, inappropriate, and unnecessary conflict of interest and is fundamentally unfair to the other candidates. That is precisely why it has long been the standard that *any* candidate for party leadership resign from Cabinet.

The only thing John Hogan ought to do on Wednesday is resign from Cabinet and announce he is running or stay in Cabinet and take a pass on the party’s top job. It is not complicated. He’s had time.

Hogan’s candidacy is off to a very bad start. This is not a fatal mistake but it casts a shadow over the race and over Cabinet. Any further delay only makes his position all the worse. Clearly, Hogan is not enthusiastic about taking on the Premier's job, otherwise, he would have announced already. That awareness may guide him to the right decision. If you are hesitating at anything, but especially a job this important, then you do not want it.

Serving as Premier, serving in Cabinet, serving in the House is a privilege, not an entitlement.

The more people in politics who remember that, the better off we’d all be.

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