Edmonton Journal | Mon., July 23, 2001

Justice Ministry guilty of public posturing

Regarding "MPs misinformed about lack of input, Justice official says," Edmonton Journal, July 18, 2001:

Minister of Justice Anne McLellan's staff has done it again. What is it about the Department of Justice and its staff's public posturing. Farah Mohamed's comments reveal that, like other Justice staff, she simply does not get it. She is not the minister, and she is not a member of Parliament.

In our July letters to the National Post and Ottawa Citizen about Justice's divorce consultations, we suggested that the minister instruct her staff to take a basic course in the proper constitutional relationship between the civil service, the minister and members of Parliament. Accordingly, Minister McLellan should instruct Miss Mohamed to do likewise.

Spokespersons for a minister are contrary to parliamentary government. It is Miss Mohamed who is "misinformed" and not the MPs of whom she speaks.

Senator Anne Cools, Toronto-Centre-York, and
Roger Gallaway,MP, Sarnia-Lambton