| An Email from Keith Spicer From an email from Keith Spicer about Shooting the Messenger: “It's no secret that the 'old boys' looked after each other and lived well on Her Majesty." Maxwell Yalden followed Keith Spicer as Commissioner of Official Languages. Yalden had been with Foreign (External) Affairs for 17 years before being named Commissioner. Like so many other diplomats in my whistleblower’s tale, he achieved ambassadorial rank after making a decision — whether it was deliberate like Woolham and Boehm I do not know — that paved the way for my dismissal on bogus insubordination charges and helped Foreign Affairs cover up the largest known sustained fraud in Canadian history on the public purse by public servants, and the Department's attempt to turn back the clock on language rights. His trading jobs with Ambassador Fortier who would issue a report to Parliament as Commissioner which exonerated his former colleagues — which Yalden’s own investigator said was a whitewash and which sealed my fate — has tarnished the reputation of both men and the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages. Perhaps it is to avoid good men getting a bad rap that Canada’s first Commissioner of Official Languages recommended in his email a former investigative reporter with the Globe and Mail, which he called a “real terrier”, to get to the bottom of what happened. Is there any point? My last experience with the Globe and Mail suggests this would be a waste of time. The current Commissioner of Official Languages is also a former journalist with the Globe and Mail and like the previous Commissioner, Dyane Adams he shamelessly used the Pontius Pilate letter to avoid doing anything. In fact, and this is somewhat surprising for a reporter with forty years experience, he even refused to conduct a simple investigation that would have revealed the name of the person which could provide extremely pertinent information about what happened—the name of the young investigator from his office who quit to protest Commissioner Fortier’s “bullshit” report to Parliament. What kind of reporter would refuse such a request claiming that allegedly destroyed files make finding her name an impossible enterprise? Maxwell Yalden is still around and writing his memoirs; it was his investigator. Maybe I can get in touch with him, and maybe he will provide me with her name and other useful information. Will keep you posted! Bernard Payeur, September 12, 2009 |
