Theophilos Argitis and Greg Quinn (Bloomberg) – Canada’s federal police may have contributed to the former Liberal Party government’s defeat in the 2006 election by disclosing its plans for a criminal probe during the campaign, a complaints body said.
“I don’t know personally if this action was the one that impacted directly upon the change of fortunes for the Liberal Party, but I think most people sort of look at it and seem to say that it was part of the mix,” Paul Kennedy, chair of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, told reporters today in Ottawa.
The RCMP has no policy governing how the force should treat information in such “highly sensitive situations,” Kennedy said in a report. As a result, while Kennedy found RCMP policies and procedures “inadequate,” he also said there was no evidence that officers failed to comply with any rules.
The police force wrote to an opposition legislator in the middle of the 2005-06 election campaign, saying it would look into allegations a major policy decision on dividend taxes had been leaked to investors by the office of then-Finance Minister Ralph Goodale.
Former RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli was “hands on involved” in making the probe public at a time when many other senior officials were away for the Christmas holiday, Kennedy said. Still, there is no evidence that Zaccardelli’s intentions were improper, he said.
`Valuable Advice’
Today’s report gives “valuable advice and recommendations” that will help the RCMP craft better policies and guidelines “related to sensitive investigations,” William Elliott, the force’s current commissioner, said in a statement. “The RCMP has already begun a review of its policies governing public communications relating to investigations.”
On Dec. 23, 2005, a month before the election that brought Prime Minister Stephen Harper to power, Zaccardelli faxed a letter to opposition lawmaker Judy Wasylycia-Leis disclosing plans to probe whether a leak had taken place. Wasylycia-Leis, a member of the New Democratic Party, shared that letter with journalists and within a week, the Liberals lost their lead over Harper’s Conservative Party in opinion polls.
In an interview with Bloomberg News last year, Zaccardelli said he was compelled to respond to a request for information on the matter by Wasylycia-Leis.
“I had a duty to act on it,” Zaccardelli said. “You’re damned if you do, you’re damned if you don’t.”
The RCMP closed the case last year without filing any charges against aides to Goodale or Liberal Party officials.
CBC showed zac in his living room, nice place – didn’t look a bit worried to me as he sat there and as claims of not co-operating was being reported.
How can a man like him who had to step down from office get out of co-operating.
Kingsclear was handled the same way in NB by the RCMP COmplaints Commission – no one co-operated there as well and so why is there not an inquiry again?
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Zaccardelli ‘impetus’ behind 2006 election bombshell
Canwest News Service Published: Monday, March 31, 2008
The RCMP’s former Commissioner may have “provided the impetus and direction” for a political bombshell dropped on Paul Martin’s Liberals in 2005, but he broke no rules to do it.
When they announced a criminal investigation into the federal Finance Department in the middle of the 2005-06 election campaign the RCMP didn’t break any rules because there were no clear rules to break, concludes a report by the RCMP’s watchdog.
Paul Kennedy, chair of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, released his findings this morning on the Mounties’ controversial launch of a criminal investigation and found that there were no RCMP policies or guidelines to specifically address the public release of information in “highly sensitive” situations. His report also cleared former commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli and RCMP senior management of any wrongdoing.
“Given the absence of any such specific policy, procedure or guideline, I cannot find that any RCMP officer failed to comply with applicable standards,” Mr. Kennedy said in his report.
“I concur with the RCMP that its policies, procedures and guidelines are inadequate to address the situation wherein public disclosure of a police investigation may have an impact upon the democratic process and may call into question public confidence in the independence of the police.”
Mr. Kennedy’s report noted that Mr. Zaccardelli “provided the impetus and direction” for the letter and the press release, and he said Mr. Zaccardelli requested that Mr. Goodale’s name be included in the press release, which the RCMP said “was not consistent with past practice.”
“However, there is no evidence that Commissioner Zaccardelli relied on any improper considerations in coming to his decision,” the report said.
At a news conference in Ottawa, Mr. Kennedy noted that Mr. Zaccardelli and some other senior RCMP members did not co-operate with his review, which he called “inappropriate.”
“It does the RCMP, I think, a disservice to have a situation where we have half the members co-operating and the other half not, and no seeming rationale for it,” Mr. Kennedy told reporters. He said for there to be “truly effective civilian oversight of police in this country,” officers should be accountable for explaining why they “did or did not do something.”
Mr. Kennedy’s report comes more than two years after the original incident that some Liberals say changed the course of the 2006 election.
In November 2005, the Liberal finance minister at the time, Ralph Goodale, made an announcement on income trust taxation and hours before, a spike in trading volumes and prices for income trusts and dividend stocks caused speculation that some Bay Street traders may have been tipped off about Mr. Goodale’s news.
About a month later, a few weeks after the election campaign had begun, the RCMP revealed they were beginning a criminal investigation into suggestions there may have been a leak from Mr. Goodale’s office.
The disclosure rocked the campaign and support for the Liberals and leader Paul Martin virtually dropped overnight after the investigation was announced. The Conservatives went on to win the election in January 2006.
Questions were raised about the timing of the RCMP’s announcement — in the middle of an election campaign — and how the probe was announced. The news was first made public in a faxed letter from the head of the RCMP at the time, Mr. Zaccardelli, to New Democratic Party MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis, who had called on the Mounties’ to investigate. The RCMP didn’t put out a press release confirming the investigation was underway until five days after they contacted Ms. Wasylycia-Leis.
Mr. Kennedy’s report said the RCMP knew that sending a letter to Wasylycia-Leis would lead to a public confirmation of the investigation and that the RCMP essentially “confirmed the obvious”when they issued the press release.
Mr. Kennedy said the RCMP need to issue a specific policy to guide future situations and outlined what he thinks it should include. Mr. Kennedy said that during election campaigns, the RCMP should refrain from disclosing the existence of a criminal investigation, but he left room for exceptions. Mr. Kennedy said various factors should be considered and the RCMP should exercise its discretion.
“In any instance where a disclosure occurs during the electoral process concerning participants in that process, the commissioner of the RCMP ought to be the decision-maker,” Mr. Kennedy recommended, adding that a written record of the rationale must also be provided.
At the end of its criminal investigation in February 2007, the RCMP exonerated Mr. Goodale and his staff but laid charges against a bureaucrat in the tax policy branch of the Finance Department. The Mounties said Serge Nadeau used confidential information to gain a personal benefit when he bought securities, and he was charged with a criminal breach of trust.
Mr. Goodale has said the investigation and the political fallout was the worst thing he had ever endured in his long political career.