Toronto Star catches Harper Government red-handed in the cookie jar with pants down! It doesn't get any better than that!

Good Day Readers:

Toronto Star Public Editor Kathy English is to be commended for deciding to run the series of articles outlining the Conservatives election strategy even though the heavy handed, bullying Tories were threatening litigation.

Now voters will know when the "secret weapon" Laureen Harper is rolled out as a kind, sweet, obedient wife she's being used to cover up her husband's chronic advanced case of CFBS (Cold Fish B-o-r-i-n-g Syndrome). It will be interesting to watch the Harperites as they engage in their dirty little pre-election devious tricks and then when caught the Prime Minister and his Office can claim they knew nothing.

It certainly sounds as though there's a mole or two hidden deep within the Conservative party.

Canadaus Moleus Conservatus

Sincerely,
Clare L. Pieuk

Why the Star published Conservative party documents: Public Editor

Anonymous email to Star's newsroom led to several exclusive stories about the inner workings of Canada's Conservative party.

By Kathy English
Public Editor
Friday, February 14, 2014

Stephen Harper with his wife Laureen. A secret Conservative strategy document linked to the Star this weekend revealed that the party plans to leverage Laureen Harper's popularity in the leadup to the 2015 election. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press File Photo)

There was a time, not so long ago, before the dawn of the Internet era, when the secret documents of politicians and public officials arrived in newsrooms in brown envelopes sent from anonymous sources.

Journalists have always been keen to receive those packages of confidential information (whatever the colour of the envelope), but well understood that the secrets revealed inside must be verified before they can be reported.

These days, secret documents not intended for the public light are more likely to come to newsrooms electronically, sent anonymously through email. As we’ve learned from Wikileaks, digital technology makes it easier for anyone to anonymously share confidential documents and harder for governments and politicians to control information leaks to the media and public.

In the click of a mouse, information never intended for public eyes can now be shared. But from the envelope era to the Internet era, what remains unchanged is the imperative that journalists do not publish such information until they can verify.

This core journalistic principle was front of mind in the Star’s newsroom and Ottawa bureau after internal documents from Stephen Harper’s Conservative party showed up anonymously in a newsroom email box last week. The Star did not know the identity of the person who sent the email, which included a 70-page slide show presented to the Conservative party’s recent national council.

This embarrassing leak of party documents led to several exclusive and powerful page 1 news stories. These included a report that the Conservatives plan to target Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau at his upcoming party convention with an orchestrated campaign focused on three words, “drive, disrupt, disunity,” as well as a fascinating story laying out details of the party’s 2015 election strategy and tactics, which includes leveraging the popularity of Harper’s wife.

As Ottawa reporter Susan Delacourt wrote this week, this was “a remarkable amount of information about the Conservative party’s political strategy.”

Not surprisingly, the Conservative party did not want its internal strategy memos to become front-page news. After all, this is a governing party known for its secrecy and silence. In 2012, the Canadian Association of Journalists gave Harper’s Conservative government its annual Code of Silence Award.

Indeed, party officials told the Star not to publish this information and said they were considering going to court to stop publication. They said the confidential information was stolen and demanded the Star give it back.

But just because Canada’s current ruling party doesn’t want the Star to publish its secrets, doesn’t mean the Star won’t publish — after doing its due diligence.

While the internal party documents came from an anonymous source, the Star’s Ottawa bureau reporters worked to verify their authenticity and, fairly, gave the party opportunity to comment before publication. Ottawa bureau chief Bruce Campion-Smith reached out Sunday to senior party officials including Dimitri Soudas Executive Director of the Conservative Party of Canada.

On first seeing the email, the Star’s immediate concern was whether it was being duped.

“It was highly unusual, even suspicious to get this sort of document dump so the alarm bells immediately go off; is this for real or some kind of a hoax?” said Stephanie Cesca, the Star’s National Editor. “While the documents looked completely legitimate, we had to be totally sure so our first priority was to verify.”

Having taken steps to assure itself the documents were authentic, the Star’s Ottawa bureau, by then aware the party was considering legal action to stop publication, quickly produced several stories that reveal the inner machinations of the Conservative party in its own words.

Why did the Star publish this confidential information? As Cesca said, “It gives the public real insight into how the Conservatives work.

“This is the party of the government that is so secretive and these documents gave us not just a glimpse, but a real window into how it operates, its political strategy and tactics.”

Despite the party’s threats, the Star never gave serious consideration to not publishing once it had assured itself of the documents’ authenticity. I think that was the right call. Journalists working in the public interest routinely find out and reveal lots of stuff that politicians and others want kept secret.

The documents are the real thing. And as the Star’s exclusive stories make clear, they reveal the game plan of Canada’s governing party to win another majority, suggesting some tactics that could blur the lines between partisan politics and parliamentary affairs.

Clearly, there is strong public interest here for all concerned with Canadian democracy.

publiced@thestar.ca