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Monday June 5 2006 |
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Journalists, scoops and hypocrisy
by Angelo Persichilli
THE HILL TIMES
Way back in 1993, the judge who crushed the corruption ring in Italy and
destroyed the political system came to Canada for a visit. During a public
meeting, Antonio Di Pietro illustrated the methodology used to isolate and
jail many politicians and business leaders. A Canadian businessman, present
at the meeting, whispered in my ears: “Angelo, if someone applies the same
methodology in Canada, your friend would have only the waiters attending
this meeting. “ Of course, when you talk about corruption today distinctions
should be made: commit an illegality for personal illicit profit, or commit
an illegality to finance a political activity.
The first one has always been there, in Italy, in Canada or
wherever there is a government.
The second one is a novelty to Canada and politicians and
media have been completely blinded by this new dynamic.
Both are reacting, sometimes hysterically, and with
hypocrisy, and by doing so are setting up the stage for a national disaster
that will jeopardize the stability of our partisan system, therefore the
entire political system and our institutions.
This is a serious subject that cannot be used to bash at a
candidate you don’t like or to get even with a political opponent for past
rifts: the financing of political institutions is a serious matter that
needs to be addressed properly, keeping in mind that the price of democracy
is high.
Running a political organization has never been easy. It was
not easy in the past, it is much more complicated now.
Add to the already complicated task of keeping together
people and ideas, new technology has created more needs, therefore more
financial resources are required.
Last month, a colleague criticized a candidate for the
leadership of the Liberal Party because he did not have an organized press
room during the opening of his campaign.
It’s safe to say that an organization without money, is
bound to lose. If you have money you can win and if you have more money than
your opponents then you may have a better chance of winning.
Of course, there are other factors involved in the process;
however, money can really make the difference and if you don’t believe that,
ask the leader of the Green Party.
So, leadership candidates need money and they know it.
Only a few weeks ago, it was reported that each Liberal
leadership candidate needs between $1-million and $2-million to run a
campaign. They also wrote that there is no such money in Canada to finance
11 candidates.
Even $1-million each would mean $11-million in total.
Until last week the candidates had officially reported, in
total, less than a million. So where is the rest of the money coming from?
Instead of downloading scoops posted on the internet by Liberal leadership
candidates, why don’t members of the national media (because aren’t they
better than local colleagues?) try doing some work and see where the rest of
the money is coming from? Put aside for a moment what I think is somewhat
hysterical reporting about the naïve way Liberal leadership candidate Joe
Volpe’s campaign is trying to hide corporate donations, or the “personal “
loans from well-known corporate executives arranged for other candidates,
(but ignored by the same national media), the hard reality is that the
political system needs more money.
The Liberal campaign is now entering a more interesting
phase and promises to get more interesting, however, I’m concerned by the
rhetoric of some politicians and journalists.
Bill C-24, approved by former prime minister Jean Chrétien’s
government, regulating the financing of the political system, is a poison
pill that eventually will kill the Liberal Party and the democratic process.
To say that corporations can donate only $1,000 dollars (and
zero dollars for a leadership campaign) and private donations can go up to
$5,400 is a masterpiece of hypocrisy.
When pundits say that having children donate $5,400 might be
legal but goes against the spirit of the law, I’m wondering what exactly is
the spirit of a law that allows zero dollars from corporations and $5,400
from individuals. Who are the people who can afford to donate $5,000 to a
political organization? I guess they’re not people on welfare, GM workers or
bank tellers. They’re corporate executives with money coming from
corporations! Are they committing an illegality? I believe that people and
corporations should be allowed to donate whatever they want, without any
limit but with one condition: all the donations should be accounted for to
the last cent. If a candidate is going to have his or her campaign totally
financed by, let’s say, the Royal Bank, then so be it. But if people know at
the beginning of the campaign where the money’s coming from and they still
decide to vote for the candidate, I don’t see anything wrong, as long as you
talk about legal money received from honest people and organizations, and
that the electorate knows everything about it.
You do not need a special law to fight corruption. In order
to avoid another sponsorship scandal, Mr. Chrétien did not need to change
the law: people can and are jailed under our existing laws.
As for some of the reporting by some members of the national
media, especially the one based in Toronto, and some pundits, I’m less
concerned. In fact, I enjoy it. There are many good professional individuals
in the press gallery on Parliament Hill who are trying to open up to new
ideas and to new people. However, there are some very much detached from the
reality of this country and who are badly struggling to be relevant, again.
Well, they are not, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper has
proven it—the more they cry about being ignored, the more the Prime Minister
goes up in the polls.
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