Editorials February 26, 1999 Is DIAND buying CBC? There are many reasons why the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs might wish to control what Canadians hear, see and read about Nunavut. Here are just a few of them: * Prime Minister Jean Chretien has stacked CBC's board of directors with Liberal party loyalists, and now appears to have launched a campaign to weaken CBC's editorial independence. For example, the federal government has recently ordered CBC to display the government of Canada logo in its broadcasts. * The minister of responsible for DIAND, Jane Stewart, is an ambitious young politician. If the Nunavut project creates bad publicity for the federal government, it will create bad publicity for her, damaging any ambitions she may have to one day lead the federal Liberal party. * Nunavut is perceived to be too expensive, and although this perception may be distorted and inaccurate, the Liberal government has a strong interest in discouraging public debate about this issue. * Nunavut is an ideal project for the Canadian government to show off to the rest of world as a way of defusing criticism that Canada violates the human rights of aboriginal people living within its borders. * Nunavut is a new partner in Confederation, changing the map of Canada for the first time since Newfoundland entered Confederation in 1949. * The current Liberal government may not have negotiated Nunavut, but they supported it in opposition and have inherited the job of carrying out the Nunavut Act. It's not surprising, therefore, to hear that DIAND is negotiating with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to buy itself a big expensive piece of Nunavut "coverage." DIAND is now talking to CBC officials about a contract under which the federal government will pay CBC more than a million dollars to produce a "protocol event:" the inaugural ceremonies for Nunavut, and a concert afterwards. He who pays the piper calls the tune. Does this mean that DIAND will also buy editorial control of the content? Will CBC be required to censor any inconvenient commentary? Under the agreement, will CBC be required to give prominence to the roles played by certain Liberal politicians? The arrangement also puts CBC journalists into a bizarre position. Not only to do they get to cover the news, they also get to create part of it. CBC, of course, would deny that this arrangement compromises its editorial independence. But it does. Canada's national broadcaster has a mandate to cover national news events independently of government. For many Canadians, CBC news is their most important source of news about their country. They have a right to expect that what they see and hear on CBC has not been bought and paid for by powerful vested interests. To help the CBC perform its work, the federal government already supplies the corporation with an annual grant worth hundreds of millions, in addition to the advertising revenue that the corporation raises on its own. Despite its dependence on federal funding, CBC journalists have usually done a commendable job of maintaining their independence from the federal government and whichever political party happens to be in power. Until now, that is. In this case, however, CBC's editorial independence has been eroded. DIAND has led CBC into an ethical sewer. The creation of Nunavut on April 1 is a significant news event in its own right and CBC should not need DIAND's cash to cover it. CBC should pay the cost of covering it out of its own revenues. CBC has also displayed an arrogant lack of transparency in its own coverage of its role in the April 1 ceremonies. While reporting that the CBC technician's strike may jeopardize their planned April 1 broadcasts, they have failed to report that it's DIAND's money that would finance their coverage of the event. That leads to more questions: if CBC's role is to be that of a contracted producer of government-financed propaganda, and is clearly unable to perform the propaganda contract because of the strike, why not ask CTV if they're willing to act as host broadcaster? Last, but most certainly not least, who will broadcast the event to the people who really matter: the mostly Inuktitut-speaking people of Nunavut's small communities? The Inuit Broadcasting Corporation — who unlike CBC actually needs the money — has been requesting funds from Ottawa to provide Inuktitut coverage of the same events, So far, the under-funded organization has been given the cold shoulder. By accepting DIAND's money, CBC is allowing the federal government and the federal Liberal party to transform a legitimate national news event into a propaganda event. For those who care about freedom of speech and the independence of the media, this is a disturbing turn of events. JB Return to Headline News February 18, 1999 Congratulations, Nunavummiut Congratulations, Nunavummiut. You did it. When more than 10,000 of you came out to vote on Feb. 15, you gave Nunavut's government a degree of political legitimacy that no written document could possibly provide. By showing that you believe in Nunavut, you will make believers out of everyone else. Few regions in Canada can claim to have ever achieved an 88 per cent voter turnout in an election. In these times of cynicism and disillusionment, few regions can claim to have achieved such faith in government. You also confounded the predictions of many self-appointed experts when you voted your own way, according to the dictates of your own minds. You defeated several candidates who were supposed to win easily, and you elected several who were supposed to lose. In doing that you reminded everyone that when confronted by the power of the electorate, humility is always the best policy. The 19 people you elected on Feb. 15 are not perfect. They are not super-heroes. They are all ordinary people, flawed human beings just like the rest of us. Some may enjoy long distinguished careers in public life, while others may fail miserably. But because of what you did on Feb. 15, those 19 people now have the toughest jobs in Nunavut. If they cannot perform those jobs to your satisfaction, they will have nowhere to hide. The wise among them already know that. The unwise among them may come to know that only after it's too late. Above all else however, those 19 people will need your patience. It will be several months before Nunavut's government will actually be able to govern in the full sense of that term. The real government — Nunavut's premier and cabinet — won't be selected until March 10-12. After that, Nunavut's new cabinet members will have to put several months of hard work into the development of a common vision and a realistic political agenda for the new government. In doing this, they must be mindful of the limited budget within which they must operate. They must also be mindful of what voters in every community in Nunavut have told them: that housing, jobs and quality health care and education are in short supply. To carry out their first policies, they will rely upon a half-finished infrastructure and a public service that is still in an early stage of development. Lastly, they know that whatever they do, they must do it differently than the GNWT, and that somehow they must put a more human, and a more Inuktitut, face on government. Congratulate yourselves for what you did this week, Nunavummiut. But remember, the 19 MLAs you elected this week will need all the patience and forbearance that you can muster. JB Return to Headline News February 11, 1999 The idiot factor All bureaucracies, along with the paper structures and protocols from which they draw sustenance, have a curious and well-known effect upon the people who work within them. After gathering decent, fair-minded human beings into their sheltering bosoms — bureaucracies will always transform those good people into idiots. Nowhere will you find a better example of that principle than a recent incident in Iqaluit, during which wildlife officers armed with a search warrant stormed into a man's home without his permission — to seize a lowly raven. Neither the man — nor the raven — had committed any known crime. Neither man nor raven posed any threat to the public. Iqaluit, with a population close to 4700, is a big town, big enough to fend off any danger posed by a raven that can't fly. But inside bureaucracies, paper is holy and what is written on paper must be obeyed. When paper is holy, common sense and simple decency are irrelevant. The law that wildlife officials applied against Craig Clark was never intended to deal with situations such as this. It was intended to protect wildlife from being stolen, sold for profit to zoos or wildlife ranches, or abused in other ways. It was not intended to punish those who take in wounded birds and try to heal them at their own expense. Search warrants are state-sanctioned invasions of liberty and privacy. But we accept them because we know that the police and other law enforcement agencies must sometimes enter citizens' homes to look for stolen goods, illegal drugs, and other evidence of serious crime. When wildlife officers used a search warrant to invade Craig Clark's home and to violate his privacy and his liberty, the letter of the law was on their side. The spirit of the law was not, but for those who toil within bureaucracies, "spirit" is an alien concept anyway. Thanks to the Nunavut land claim, a bewildering variety of bureaucracies now wield authority over wildlife, land, water and other such matters. Each bears its own ugly, unpronounceable acronym — NWMB, QWMB, RWED, HTO — and each employs its own set of puffed-up paper-shufflers with grandiloquent job titles to go with their corner offices. If they're managed competently (and that's a big "if"), these organizations contain the potential to serve the public interest well. Their purpose is to ensure that Inuit have an equal say with governments in the conservation of wildlife, and that Nunavut's environment receives the protection it deserves. Those who negotiated the Nunavut land claim agreement and those who conceived of all the little bureaucracies created by that agreement could not, however, incorporate the idiot factor into their thinking. Nobody can protect themselves against the idiot factor. Just ask Craig Clark. JB Return to Headline News February 4, 1999 Nunavut's health boards must go Nunavut's regional health boards are an idea whose time has passed. At its earliest opportunity, the Nunavut government should abolish them, and place Nunavut's health care system under the direct control of Nunavut's Department of Health and Social Services. At the same time, employees of Nunavut's three health boards should be absorbed into the health department, and if necessary, reassigned where their skills are most needed. Each of the former health boards would then operate under the direction of a regional superintendent of health and social services, who would report directly to Nunavut's deputy minister of health and social services. In eliminating the three health boards, the people of Nunavut would not lose any power or control over the health care system. Health board members are not elected by the communities they are supposed to represent. They are appointed by the territorial minister of health, and are therefore accountable only to the health minister. This is not self-government. This is a cynical neo-colonialist illusion that has outlived whatever usefulness it may have once had. Nunavut will soon have 19 democratically elected MLAs, along with a premier and cabinet who will require the support of those MLAs to hold their jobs. It is Nunavut's elected MLAs who ought to represent the people of Nunavut in health care issues, not appointed board members. In losing the three health boards, the people of Nunavut would gain a health care system that is simpler, easy to understand, and under the direct control of Nunavut's elected government. When things go wrong, the public will know who is accountable: Nunavut's elected MLAs and cabinet ministers. They will know who to complain to, and who to lobby: Nunavut's elected MLAs and cabinet ministers. If it turns out that your MLA doesn't handle health issues to your satisfaction, you can use your voting power to elect a better MLA next time around. At the same time, the Nunavut government, and its health department administrators will still need advice on how best to run the health system. Elected MLAs, and in some cases, elected community mayors and municipal counselors can provide that advice. At other times, they may need the advice of those who specialize in health and social issues, especially health care professionals. One option that the Nunavut government should consider is the creation of a Nunavut-wide health advisory council. Such a body should include representatives from the health care and social work professions: nurse practitioners, midwives, doctors, public health workers, social workers, and counselors; a representative from the Nunavut Social Development Council; and at least one representative from each of the three regional Inuit associations. This body should meet at least three times a year, in each of the three regions of Nunavut. They should meet in public, and they should be directed, and encouraged, to pass resolutions advising the government on long-term health and health-related social issues. Members of the Nunavut health advisory council should receive no honoraria — just travel and simple expenses. It's crucial that Nunavut's health department pay greater heed to the valuable opinions of those who actually know how to provide health care. Those opinions are rarely heard in our health care debates, mostly because health care professionals know they are likely to be severely disciplined by petty officials who don't even know the difference between an IV and a catheter. This week, we have witnessed the latest in a long series of embarrassing fiascos to befall Nunavut's health boards: the near financial collapse of the Keewatin's patient home in Winnipeg. Let this fiasco be the last. The people of Nunavut deserve better. JB