Montreal Gazette
On the face of it, the government was well within its rights to fire Jeffrey Monaghan. If, as the Conservatives claim, the 27-year-old public servant leaked Environment Minister John Baird’s secret plan to abandon the Kyoto accord to the press, then that is, indeed, a firing offence.
But even though it might also be a criminal one, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s decision to confront Monaghan in his office, handcuff him in front of his peers and haul him off for questioning was overkill at best and an egregious abuse of power at worst. The fact that police released him without charges after a couple of hours’ questioning is an indication that the handcuffs in particular were an unnecessary humiliation.
It’s also a little hard to believe the Mounties’ bland assurances that they acted on their own, without any political pressure from the government. In fact, Baird himself was telling the media that the arrest and questioning sent a message to all public servants that they have a duty to protect all confidential information.
That’s certainly true. There is a big difference between a civil servant blowing the whistle on government wrongdoing and one who reveals sensitive government information. But even if the Mounties are right in their contention that Monaghan’s indiscretion might have violated his workplace security clearance, their ham-fisted operation sent another less savoury message – that this government is not above bullying its employees, no matter how low on the totem pole they are.
Monaghan was a low-level media analyst in the environment department when the Mounties swooped in on him. He was also a contract employee with no job security. Even firing him was a bit heavy handed as he had only a day left on his contract when the government gave him the boot.
The government certainly has a right to demand professional discretion from public servants, and certainly the police have an obligation to investigate serious breaches. But surely the government could have treated Monaghan’s offence – if he committed one – as a simple matter of employee discipline.
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