Mark Holland: An example of how to handle private papers
Mark Holland, Liberal MP for Ajax-Pickering, is scolding the Conservatives for not controlling access to documentation properly. Here are boxes, labeled clearly as belong to the Prime Minister's Office, and also labeled as awaiting pickup by movers, left in the general vacinity of Mark Holland. So of course, the right thing to do is teach the Conservatives a lesson by opening those boxes up, rifling through them all, and handing over what nuggets he finds interesting to the mass media.
First, check out the video being played out across the Canadian blogosphere.
Now consider this screen capture:
Going to 320-3.
That designation refers the location of the Office of the Prime Minister, better known as the Prime Minister's Office or PMO. I know because I asked someone at the PMO.
Clearly the label shows that the boxes were the property of the PMO.
Clearly the label shows that the boxes were to be located in the office of the PMO. Movers would be around to get them.
Maybe the movers weren't called. Maybe they forgot some boxes. Or maybe the boxes weren't where the movers expected to find them. That last possibility is the scariest, because it leads to questions of government documentation being moved around, perhaps to purposely prevent them from being correctly delivered.
So what is the Liberal Party spin? That the boxes were abandoned, as if there was no interest in moving them:
The Conservative government's blatant disregard for the privacy of their own employees raises serious questions about their competence to protect the privacy of all Canadians, the Liberal Opposition said today as they handed over boxes of confidential personnel files the Conservatives left behind in Opposition offices.
"Today we're returning five years worth of personal performance appraisals of Conservative staffers that this government negligently left behind," said Liberal MP Mark Holland.
"These are confidential documents on their own staff. Such gross ineptitude makes me very nervous about how this government handles other issues of a private nature," he added.
I would be nervous too, if I left a sealed box or envelope in the presense of Mark Holland. Apparently, that is an invitation to start rifling through the material, and then giving it out to the press.
I bet Mark Holland was great fun as a kid -- opening up Christmas gifts on December 21 just to see what he would be getting.
But here's the funny thing. The story about the papers is going under a subtle shift. Two days ago, the Liberal Party was saying they found the papers left behind:
Mr. Holland indicated that other documents left behind may contain information in the public interest. The Liberal Opposition is currently examining these documents and will turn them over to the RCMP and other relevant officials if further evidence of criminality or breach of ethics rules is found.
A week ago, though, it was a Deep Throat operation, with some shadowy figure doing the work of examining government papers, and delivering the goodies to Mark Holland:
At a news conference in Ottawa on Thursday, Holland said he was given documents anonymously earlier this week that indicate otherwise.
Holland says the documents show that Hart requested compensation totaling $22,674 in exchange for stepping down and that party officials and officials in Day’s office agreed in advance of Hart’s resignation to pay the compensation.
So which is it? The documents were left behind? Or that they came into the possession of this anonymous person? Were the boxes in the office all along, or were they brought there from somewhere else, essentially waylaid?
Here's what I think is going on. Mark Holland delivers the Stockwell Day memo regarding the resignation of Jim Hart, suggesting Hart was enticed to give up his seat for Day. A bit of stress for the government, but then the Quebec election happens, and everyone is talking about just how Stephen Harper is so masterful at running this government, and how Stephen Harper's plans are firing on all cylinders. A majority just around the corner, it seems.
So now the Liberals add a scandal to the scandal. Instead of the anonymous tip, there is the notion of "abandoned" documents, that somehow Stephen Harper and the Conservatives are leaving sensitive material all over Parliament Hill. The video shows the new circus act of the documents being delivered by the Liberals who are so respectful of document control that they intend to deliver the balance of the boxes into safer hands -- once they've been through them, of course, and released anything interesting they find to the press.
And if that doesn't work, they can change the story again. Maybe this time Mark Holland tried to get the movers to come get the boxes, but they were so heavy and stacked in such a dangerous manner by Conservatives (who obviously have no consideration for workplace safety) that they spontaneously began to tip over. Only his quick reflexes managed to save a group of nuns and orphans who had come to his office to plead that the oilsands be nationalized for the good of the environment from being crushed. The boxes opened inadvertently, and the memos about Stockwell Day and Jim Hart just happened to fall at his feet.
Sure. And if Stephen Harper continues to get good press despite this, add some kittens or baby seals or something.
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Comments
It does not excuse the fact that there does not appear to have been a strict chain of custody with respect to personnel files.
There is no excuse for that, regardless of the Liberal spin.
Posted by: at March 28, 2007 01:33 PM
There is no excuse that's true. However, I hope it doesn't seem right that when you find a wallet, you're welcome to make an imprint of their credit card, and hold on to their passport, because it's an important document. Then read a private letter you found to TV reporters that is embarrasing
Then make a big hoopla of giving the wallet back.
Posted by: Fergy at March 28, 2007 02:06 PM
Also enquiring minds would wonder how long it would take to photocopy the documents you would want to keep? A week? Maybe just scan it? Any extra requisitions for equipment? Any temp labour hired? Hmm...
Posted by: Fergy at March 28, 2007 02:11 PM
One wonders why it took the Liberals a full year to discover this box.
Lets discuss breach of ethics. I don't open mail that is mis-delivered to my superbox slot, I would not expect an ethical person to open a box of documents with a clear destination that was not theirs, let alone examine the documents in such detail so as to pick out the "controversial" deal.
And sure, Harper could have inventoried packed boxes to delivered boxes, but I never do when moving offices.
Posted by: at March 28, 2007 02:11 PM
Who has an issue with ethics here:
A. The Conservatives, who do not appear to have controlled their ownership of the boxes, or
B. The Liberals, who took a year to examine the contents of the boxes to use the juicy parts for poilitical gain?
I wonder how far Holland will get acting as wimpy Dion’s hatchet man? Probably only up to the next election.
Actually, I find their schoolyard antics entertaining. Canadians see through the liberals' tactics and roll their eyes at this brand of politics.
Posted by: Slider at March 28, 2007 02:46 PM
You know how sometimes there's a member of the opposing team that you hate with a passion but if you could ever become team mates with him your attitude about him would totally change?
Well Mark Holland is NOT one of those people!
He's a scumbag and we will happily leave him on their team!
Posted by: clair voyant at March 28, 2007 03:11 PM
In regards to the chain of custody, we don't know where the breakdown occurred. When you have people changing offices, you don't always have one person cleared out before the other one shows up. Sometimes you do, but sometimes you don't.
Remember when Bush took office? When his staff came into the West Wing, they found massive sabotage and theft of basic property belonging to the White House done by Clinton's staff as they left. This case could be the same, a joke that slowly got out of hand.
It could be as simple as somebody with something against the Conservatives moved into that office before all the files got taken and decided to move some boxes as a practical joke to see when they would take notice. Being as they were old evaluation files (and who really looks for those on a regular basis?) the Conservatives didn't realize they were gone. Then, the person who moved them got curious and decided to look into them. Then, that person decided to see if they could use it.
See? Not really a chain of custody question, but a question of what it took to go from a box being in the wrong place when the movers came to a the box being part of an illegal action: opening of a package addressed to another party. What Holland and Jennings did is no more legal than if I got somebody else's mail in my mailbox and decided to look through it. If it's labeled, I have a legal and more importantly an ethical duty to return it immeadiately.
Holland and Jennings didn't return it. That demonstrates their level of ethics clearly.
Posted by: Surecure at March 28, 2007 03:31 PM
But Holland and Jennings are Liberals....so they are entitled to disregard morals and ethics when it suits them. Just another entitlement perk that goes with being a Liberal.
Posted by: Conrad at March 28, 2007 04:09 PM
Just how long did the boxes sit there? It wouldn't surprise me to find out that they had been placed there for the movers, and Mark Holland confiscated them as soon as they were stacked. When moving material fron one office to another, even to the same floor of a building, you must still have everything collected in one place.
That Mark Holland took these boxes simply proves him to be a thief. After all, had he done that in any other environment, he would be languishing either in jail, or at home, jobless, for such theft of property.
Posted by: Dagny Taggart at March 28, 2007 04:21 PM
If Holland was opening any boxes on Christmas they probably weren't his own.
Posted by: johndoe124 at March 28, 2007 05:41 PM
There should be an investigation of Holland and Jennings, the boxes were not addressed to them and certain papers didn't fly at them in the wind.
What are the Conservatives waiting for here?
Posted by: Libby at March 28, 2007 05:51 PM
Interesting state of affairs this one.
I think Mark Holland should be held accountable for this and do the honourable thing and resign.
The fact that these boxes were addressed and deliverable within THE SAME BUILDING coupled with the fact that the boxes have been unaccounted for OVER A YEAR leaves a lot of unanswered questions.
Its time to sing Mark Holland and in your best falsetto.
You sir have some explaining to do.
Posted by: Simon at March 28, 2007 06:16 PM
Check this post for the rules involving the smooth administrative functioning of Parliament.
Posted by: Steve Janke at March 28, 2007 06:42 PM
Liberals are slimy thieves, totally lacking in morals. SAY IT ISN'T SO..
Posted by: Boomer at March 28, 2007 07:16 PM
Wanke...isn't Sheehan due for another gynecological exam?
Posted by: Angry on a great white toilet. at March 29, 2007 09:03 AM
A Liberal pointing fingers at corruption is like a whore calling the cops on her pimp.
Posted by: WL Mackenzie Redux at March 29, 2007 06:11 PM
Its quite simple. If it isn't yours you don't open it.
Posted by: Dave Doobie at April 6, 2007 06:52 PM
 
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