CKNW Editorial
for March 20, 2001

The Rahim Jaffer matter is not just a boyish prank as some Alliance supporters would have us believe. In fact, it’s two very serious matters rolled into one for there’s the question of the conduct of the MP himself and that of his leader, Stockwell Day.

To recap, last Saturday, during an interview she thought was that of Mr Jaffer, Peter Warren’s producer received a call saying that it wasn’t Mr Jaffer at all on the other end of the line. The producer, Shannon Gunning, checked her voice mail and, sure enough, the voice in the interview was that of Mr Jaffer’s Executive Assistant, Matthew Johnston, who had left two messages when the interview was being arranged. When Ms Gunning contacted Jaffer at his café in Edmonton – where he had been presiding at an opening ceremony when he was supposedly being interviewed by Mr Warren – Jaffer claimed he had indeed done the interview. When asked to explain the voicemails Mr Jaffer made the incredible statement that he had actually made one those calls and said he was Malcolm Johnston. Ms Gunning pressed the matter and asked Jaffer to put that in writing. The following day both Jaffer and Johnston confessed.

Impersonation happens to be a crime and is covered under section 403 of the Criminal Code of Canada. It is also a crime to be an accessory to a crime. This action betrays, of course, the stupidity of both men, especially Jaffer. If you’re going to pull off a fraud – and that’s what this was – at least have some reason to believe it will work. Jaffer must have known that with the broadcast, going into Edmonton when he was snipping his ribbon, he would likely be caught out.

Of more seriousness is the way this was handled by the Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day. There are some things that you instinctively know are wrong because your tummy tells you so. Stockwell Day, evidently, doesn’t have any instincts for what is right and what’s wrong. Look at the way he handled the libel case against him when he criticized a lawyer for taking a kiddie porn case. He apparently didn’t know that it was wrong to accuse a lawyer of guilt by legal and proper association with a client. Mr Day not only didn’t understand that, he didn’t have the decency to apologize, which apology would likely have either solved the matter or gone a long way towards doing so.

But Mr Day had to have an inkling that something was wrong here because upon learning of the matter, he immediately stripped Jaffer of his committee membership. Yet … instead of dealing with the rest of the matter himself, Mr Day left it up to John Reynolds … for whatever reason it’s difficult to imagine. As of two o’clock yesterday afternoon Reynolds was still saying that Mr Jaffer didn’t know what Mr Johnston had done though it’s clear on the evidence that he fully participated in the scam.

What should Mr Day have done?

It’s not rocket science, folks. Suspend Mr Jaffer from his committee and state clearly that caucus will be asked to suspend him pending a full investigation into the matter. That’s precisely what Gordon Campbell did in the Paul Reitsma matter when the Liberal MLA was accused of writing letters to the editor of a local paper, full of self praise, using a fictitious name. That is the procedure that ought to have come instinctively to Stockwell Day.

My producers contacted Mr Day long before air time yesterday and offered access to my audience to explain the matter. He and John Reynolds are cross with me for making that fact public, complaining that they weren’t bound to immediately answer the concerns of Rafe Mair. And, of course, they’re right. They owe me nothing. The obligation they have is to the public and there is no way Mr Day can reach more of the public quicker than on my show. The truth is, Stockwell Day didn’t want to confront the public … leadership was an uncomfortable burden at that particular moment so he tried to pass it on to John Reynolds.

The facts are simple. There was a fake interview given by an assistant to an MP, which fake interview was clearly colluded in by the MP who, went confronted with the facts, immediately lied through his teeth. We have a political leader who, faced with this, shuns his clear responsibility and ducks behind the back of the party whip. One is hard pressed to think of anyone less likely to restore public confidence in a matter like this than Mr Reynolds.

Had Mr Day answered my call this morning I would have asked him if the faking of an interview by an executive assistant to an MP was acceptable conduct? Was it acceptable for an MP to collude in such an impersonation? Was it acceptable for the MP, when caught out, to lie to Ms Gunning making the preposterous assertion that he in fact impersonated his executive assistant on one of the voice mails on Ms Gunning’s phone?

I would have put it to Mr Day that this was a matter for the leader … that the appropriate action was to suspend Mr Jaffer from his committee and from caucus until the matter was satisfactorily cleared up.

Mr Day’s clear inability to lead has got his party in a lot of trouble. He is now seen as the roadblock to any unity with the Tories who, while they know that Joe Clark is no longer able to unite the right, see that neither is Day the Dawdler.

No Stockwell Day, John Reynolds and Co – this is not a matter of the media being unfair to the Alliance – it’s a matter of the Canadian Alliance using the media to try manipulate the public then lying through their teeth about it … followed by unbelievably clumsy efforts at damage control … and then not having the political sense, the common sense, the decency or the smarts to do the right thing.

As the bard so aptly said, "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves …"