The Official Languages Commissioner has decreed that cabinet ministers should tweet in both official languages, which seems like a fairly concerning decree when you look at how some of those ministers are using the Twitter Machine to engage in some actual dialogue with actual Canadians (and some journalists too) about issues, without it all being canned statements and talking points. The caveat to the Commissioner’s statement is that they must use both official languages when communicating “objectives, initiatives, decisions and measures taken or proposed by a ministry or the government.” In other words, those canned links to press releases. The thing is, those are already being tweeted out by the official department accounts, whereas the ministers tweeting – at least for the good ones – are more “personal” and less filtered. Those are where the value in Twitter lies, and if the objective is to simply turn ministerial Twitter accounts to official releases, then what’s the point? I think this may be an instance where the Commissioner needs to perhaps re-evaluate social media and the engagement that happens over it.
This is a triumph of Missing The Point. We can say goodbye to the incipient, yet salutory trend of ministers engaging directly w/ the public
— Stephen Gordon (@stephenfgordon) February 12, 2015
Good reads:
- Martin Patriquin profiles the super-loyal and kind of obsequious Stephen Blaney.
- Laura Payton looks at five ways in which Dimitri Soudas could hurt the Conservatives while trying to get Eve Adams elected.
- The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP released their report on those gun seizures in High River, and found there were some procedures not followed and things not reported to a judge, but most of the seizures were lawful.
- Remember the EI blue ribbon panel from 2009 that the government agreed to in order to stave off an election? Pierre Poilievre was the roadblock to its work at the time, and now he’s in charge of EI.
- As Eve Adams returns to those words of Jim Flaherty’s, which questioned the value of income splitting, anonymous Liberals question the value of Adams to the party.
- Chantal Bernier urges caution on the new anti-terror bill – and wants more oversight.
Odds and ends:
The coming 50th anniversary of the flag recalls the bitter debates over its adoption, including amongst members of the press gallery.
Stephen Harper made two announcements yesterday – that they’ll make early release for repeat offenders tougher (because we wouldn’t want to integrate them into the community with supervision), and that they will appeal the ruling that says people can wear a niqab during a citizenship ceremony.
The Senate is currently making no efforts to recoup money from suspended Senator Patrick Brazeau (not surprising since he’s currently without an income).