Liar
By Eric Dowd
Toronto – Cabinet ministers will be
expected to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth in
the legislature -- as long as it suits their convenience.
This
is part of a large fallout from what effectively is the first time in
memory a minister has admitted lying in the legislature.
Charles
Harnick, who was attorney general in the former Progressive Conservative
government in 1995, told opposition MPPs at that time he had been unable
to substantiate a rumor an unidentified person said `I want `the fucking
Indians out of the (Ipperwash provincial) park’ before police entered to
remove native demonstrators and shot one dead.
But
Harnick has now testified at a public enquiry he clearly heard the remark
made by then premier Mike Harris, but did not say so in the legislature,
because it is merely a political forum in which he did not feel the same
obligation to tell the truth.
Harnick technically is not the first
minister to admit lying in the legislature. New Democrat Shelley Martel
claimed in a bizarre case in 1991 she lied when she said she saw the
confidential billings of a doctor who was criticizing her government and
he could be prosecuted.
But
Martel was suspected to have opted to say she lied because she felt it was
a lesser offence than misusing confidential information and it was not as
clear a case of lying as Harnick’s.
Many
will now say if one minister has admitted he lied when called to testify
at a public enquiry, others probably have lied, but never been on a
witness stand where they were forced to confess it.
Some
will say this merely confirms what they already knew, that all politicians
are liars.
Harnick’s
admission also is a blow to those in all parties suggesting ways of
building trust in politicians and encouraging more residents to vote. Only
18 per cent cast ballots in a by-election in November.
In
what may seem odd to outsiders, while ministers clearly lie at times, the
legislature’s rules forbid questioners calling them `liars’ or saying
they `lied’ in an attempt to prevent debates degenerating into mere
name-calling.
The
many thrown out for accusing opponents of lying include Bob Rae when NDP
leader and Lyn McLeod when Liberal leader, who both complained Harris
broke promises to keep user fees out of and maintain funding for medicare
and were accurate.
Michael
Cassidy of the NDP was another leader ejected for saying an opponent lied,
in his case Conservative premier William Davis.
Some
have been successful using different terminology trying to avoid getting
thrown out. David Peterson when Liberal leader got away with saying a
minister was `talking out of both sides of his mouth.’
Conservative
Leo Bernier was not kicked out when he said a New Democrat had `as much
respect for the truth as Ali Khan has for a marriage licence,’ but this
comparison is now out of date.
A
number of MPPs have borrowed Winston Churchill’s famous phrase and
accused ministers of `terminological inexactitude,’ and been allowed to
stay.
But
Harris said a Liberal minister did `a taffy pull with the truth’ and a
Speaker forced him to withdraw the comment.
Murray
Elston, a Liberal interim leader, said he would keep questioning until an
NDP minister `becomes an honest man,’ but similarly had to withdraw.
Liberal
Remo Mancini said a Conservative minister’s` `nose is growing’ and a
Speaker who said he knew the story of Pinocchio ordered him to withdraw.
New
Democrat Mike Breaugh said he would not call a Liberal minister a liar,
but `he could walk underneath a snake while wearing a top hat,’ but had
to withdraw
MPPs
also have been forced to withdraw more routine variations such as saying
ministers were `economical with the truth’ or `less than honest’
The
legislature goes to a lot of effort to stop MPPs calling each other liars,
but it is more difficult to stop them lying.
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