The lying is instinctive and reflexive. They lie like the rest of us breathe — automatically and without thought. They lie when there is no reason to lie, just to stay in practice. They lie because pulling the wool over people's eyes makes them feel superior and powerful. They laugh in secret, amazed that it seems so easy to fool people
Haven't there been numerous comments about the government believing all they needed to do was fix their communications? I guess they're still working on it.
Every dispatch gets more dispiriting with the current government seemingly sinking to new lows. There isn't a week that passes without some new and awful revelation. The cascade of scandals and blunders would have sunk many more competent governments a long time ago. What do they possess that makes them so impervious to criticism? I am genuinely curious and baffled all at the same time.
I have been saying for eight long years that Canadians better pray that a really serious international incident doesn’t happen that drags us into it. This Government simply doesn’t have the cajones to plan and execute anything. And the deceit and manipulation (spin) has become so deeply ingrained that nobody knows what is truth or fiction.
One last thing:
I have several anecdotal observations about government agencies and holidays. The common theme is that if a crisis occurs over a long weekend, may God Bless. That’s about as close as you will get to people in charge who have disappeared and won’t return until Tuesday. I look at the catastrophe in Israel and wonder, if that wouldn’t bring Global Affairs back to do real time Embassy work, what would it take? Sometimes sacrifices for holidays are genuine and the Embassy doesn’t come out of this looking very good.
This government seems to think we're too oblivious to notice "comms speak." I also figured something was up after seeing Joli's interview. I joked that there was probably some banal bureaucratic rationale that prevented them from keeping the office open to the public (vs "operational") during a crisis. Like exceeding approved FTEs or something. I'm not feeling very jokey about it now, alas.
Weird night in "toughness". The Canadian 'progressive' movement cheerleading Hamas. Meanwhile the Leafs are playing non-contact hockey in their home opener. Weird. One can still count on cowardly government comms making up meaningless distinctions whereby the embassy would only be 'non-operational' if it took a direct rocket hit.
Long ago democratic governments seem to have forgotten that the people are their masters and deserve to know the truth. This was a corruption of the democratic promise.
Ironically lies and spin cannot be sustained and when discovered the embarrassment is far greater than what would have been suffered had the truth been spoken in the first place.
You are correct. The truth should have been clearly and simply told and the citizens would have understood and maybe even approved (i.e., Embassy staff left for parts unknown for the weekend, were surprised as everyone else when war broke out, are having difficulty getting back to the Embassy (maybe), Ottawa is fielding questions in the meanwhile, and Embassy to open on Monday). Maybe that would have been the truth or closer to the truth, and the Embassy and the government would have looked better and been more helpful. Question: Are both parties so likely to lie all the time?
Thanks Matt. I'd like to comment on your opening about the war with Hamas first, as I wonder if it might connect with the strange absence and lack of clarity about why no one was reachable. We in the West like to think about Israel and its tiffs with terrorists like Hamas as "local." But this attack has underscored that *any* westerner present in the "Holy Land" (to remind readers of this comment we're talking about a place with multicultural global connections for many nationalities) was fair target for terror/abduction/the unspeakable. So no, as it's shaking out, this didn't turn out to be a "local" tragedy. Which leads me to my point: Could it be that the Canadian embassy's lack of transparency was connected to security measures? If you have ever been in Israel after a terrorist attack in which there has been multiple fatalities (I'm going to make a guess that most readers haven't), governments shut their offices down as well, as they can be targets. Also, Tel Aviv was being targeted with missiles as well. Is it optimum for the families desperately searching for help to find they can't reach the embassy? Definitely not. Maybe there was a better way to indicate they weren't available than a "Happy Thanksgiving" notice. It didn't seem to send the right message for sure.
My heart breaks for the families who were struggling to find assistance, if not their family members and couldn't reach either. But this horrible war is going to extract patience from all of us, particularly those who could never imagine facing such a nightmare. The more stories that come out, the more this humanitarian nightmare touches all of us.
The lying is instinctive and reflexive. They lie like the rest of us breathe — automatically and without thought. They lie when there is no reason to lie, just to stay in practice. They lie because pulling the wool over people's eyes makes them feel superior and powerful. They laugh in secret, amazed that it seems so easy to fool people
Disgusting.
Haven't there been numerous comments about the government believing all they needed to do was fix their communications? I guess they're still working on it.
Matt, you are doing amazing work on this issue. Your passion for this work shines through. Thank you.
Every dispatch gets more dispiriting with the current government seemingly sinking to new lows. There isn't a week that passes without some new and awful revelation. The cascade of scandals and blunders would have sunk many more competent governments a long time ago. What do they possess that makes them so impervious to criticism? I am genuinely curious and baffled all at the same time.
This is quite the story The Line has produced.
I have been saying for eight long years that Canadians better pray that a really serious international incident doesn’t happen that drags us into it. This Government simply doesn’t have the cajones to plan and execute anything. And the deceit and manipulation (spin) has become so deeply ingrained that nobody knows what is truth or fiction.
One last thing:
I have several anecdotal observations about government agencies and holidays. The common theme is that if a crisis occurs over a long weekend, may God Bless. That’s about as close as you will get to people in charge who have disappeared and won’t return until Tuesday. I look at the catastrophe in Israel and wonder, if that wouldn’t bring Global Affairs back to do real time Embassy work, what would it take? Sometimes sacrifices for holidays are genuine and the Embassy doesn’t come out of this looking very good.
This government seems to think we're too oblivious to notice "comms speak." I also figured something was up after seeing Joli's interview. I joked that there was probably some banal bureaucratic rationale that prevented them from keeping the office open to the public (vs "operational") during a crisis. Like exceeding approved FTEs or something. I'm not feeling very jokey about it now, alas.
Imagine trying this in your job- any job outside of government. Lol
This is the stuff I pay for. Well done, G&G.
Who is Marieke? And what does s/he have to do with the question?
Weird night in "toughness". The Canadian 'progressive' movement cheerleading Hamas. Meanwhile the Leafs are playing non-contact hockey in their home opener. Weird. One can still count on cowardly government comms making up meaningless distinctions whereby the embassy would only be 'non-operational' if it took a direct rocket hit.
I'm not in management but this smells like a buzzword, like "situational awareness", or "value proposition".
e.g. lots of "operational" wording here:
https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/backgrounders/2015/11/27/open-and-accountable-government
And I say it yet again, Matt and Jen are tenacious reporters and we are all much better off with them asking the questions.
And, I say it yet again, [again!] this government is composed of bozos who lie and obfuscate as initial, secondary and final positions.
Long ago democratic governments seem to have forgotten that the people are their masters and deserve to know the truth. This was a corruption of the democratic promise.
Ironically lies and spin cannot be sustained and when discovered the embarrassment is far greater than what would have been suffered had the truth been spoken in the first place.
Matt's fine article demonstrates this.
Love you & Jen for the thorough follow through - maybe the GAC / PMO can take a lesson from you...not likely, but they could. Keep it up 👍🏻
You are correct. The truth should have been clearly and simply told and the citizens would have understood and maybe even approved (i.e., Embassy staff left for parts unknown for the weekend, were surprised as everyone else when war broke out, are having difficulty getting back to the Embassy (maybe), Ottawa is fielding questions in the meanwhile, and Embassy to open on Monday). Maybe that would have been the truth or closer to the truth, and the Embassy and the government would have looked better and been more helpful. Question: Are both parties so likely to lie all the time?
Thanks Matt. I'd like to comment on your opening about the war with Hamas first, as I wonder if it might connect with the strange absence and lack of clarity about why no one was reachable. We in the West like to think about Israel and its tiffs with terrorists like Hamas as "local." But this attack has underscored that *any* westerner present in the "Holy Land" (to remind readers of this comment we're talking about a place with multicultural global connections for many nationalities) was fair target for terror/abduction/the unspeakable. So no, as it's shaking out, this didn't turn out to be a "local" tragedy. Which leads me to my point: Could it be that the Canadian embassy's lack of transparency was connected to security measures? If you have ever been in Israel after a terrorist attack in which there has been multiple fatalities (I'm going to make a guess that most readers haven't), governments shut their offices down as well, as they can be targets. Also, Tel Aviv was being targeted with missiles as well. Is it optimum for the families desperately searching for help to find they can't reach the embassy? Definitely not. Maybe there was a better way to indicate they weren't available than a "Happy Thanksgiving" notice. It didn't seem to send the right message for sure.
My heart breaks for the families who were struggling to find assistance, if not their family members and couldn't reach either. But this horrible war is going to extract patience from all of us, particularly those who could never imagine facing such a nightmare. The more stories that come out, the more this humanitarian nightmare touches all of us.