Tom Pitfield smokes David Lametti, so many leaving, and the messy Charter fight...

Big shake up in Ottawa as people leave and Carney picks a Charter fight with provinces.

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The Globe and Mail has great reporting today on David Lametti leaving Mark Carney’s office. I could call it great for many reasons, including that I don’t think Lametti should be near government, but it also detailed the power struggle between Lametti and Tom Pitfield inside Carney’s office as they shared the role of principal secretary.

That’s an untenable position in any government. So Lametti, Mark Carney’s friend of many decades is leaving.

The whole episode reminded me of another story the Globe published two weeks ago that wasn’t their best.

On September 4, The Globe reported that Pitfield’s firm, Data Sciences, had represented tobacco firm Philip Morris International. This was before Pitfield left the data sciences and analytics firm that he founded to serve in government.

It was a weak piece, especially by Globe standards and a reporter was sent out to ask Carney about Pitfield’s suitability for being part of the government.

“We have a tobacco industry in the country. We have people who smoke in this country,” Carney said.

“It is legal to buy cigarettes in this country. I make no judgment about that.”

Carney noted that he didn’t necessarily support smoking, but it was legal and dismissed a follow-up question about whether Pitfield would be involved in health discussions.

So, cui bono?

Who benefits from the Tom Pitfield story working with Big Tobacco being in the public eye? The obvious answer is David Lametti, the man who is now leaving government.

Did he plant the story with the Globe?

I can’t say for sure and I haven’t and wouldn’t ask any of the journalists involved, all of whom I know, but it looks like it.

Which is why Tom Pitfield smoked David Lametti over sloppy oppo research.

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Is it time to leave already…

It’s not just Freeland and Lametti leaving.

I started to hear whispers of a Carney cabinet shuffle shortly after the House rose for the summer recess at the end of June. It didn’t make sense to me at the time, it seemed too soon.

Carney became PM in March and swore in a new placeholder cabinet then before calling an election. On May 13 he was sworn in again with a new cabinet that didn’t look at all like the pre-election cabinet.

Why would he change cabinet ministers again?

Well, Chrystia Freeland announced she was leaving on Tuesday, getting a special envoy to Ukraine position. Now we are hearing that Bill Blair, Steven Guilbeault and Jonathan Wilkinson are leaving as well.

Blair will become Canada’s High Commissioner in London replacing Ralph Goodale, Wilkinson will become our Ambassador to Germany according to reports. Here’s how I described Blair’s move in my Toronto Sun column.

Whatever one thinks of Ralph Goodale, no one can say the former cabinet minister wasn’t jovial, had the gift of the gab and could ensure people who might be hostile would eventually warm up to him. Goodale was a Liberal but a happy warrior; he was well suited for the role of diplomat.

Blair by contrast is a gruff, grumpy, do-it-my-way old police officer who is unlikely to succeed in one of Canada’s top diplomatic posts. You don’t win friends and influence people by barking orders at them and Blair has the bedside manner of a drill sergeant with a bad temper.

Now Blair and Wilkinson are former cabinet members, Carney didn’t want them in his full team. Guilbeault on the other hand is still Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture.

Read the column if you want to hear why Guilbeault won’t be going anywhere until after October 19. Hint, it has to do with a pension.

Final point, and then I’ll hand it back…I doubt these will be the last departures.

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Carney is picking a very messy fight…

In a submission to the Supreme Court, the federal government is asking the court to neuter part of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The case before the court is a challenge to Quebec’s Bill 21, the law on secularism in the province.

The province has of course used the notwithstanding clause for the bill as they have done several times over the decades with other laws. The notwithstanding clause is also known as section 33 of the Charter, it was a key of the package that got the Charter and the constitutional changes of 1982 passed.

Now, the federal government under Mark Carney is going to ask the courts to limit, in some ways remove this power from elected legislatures while reserving this power for judges.

“The constitutional limits of the s. 33 power preclude it from being used to distort or annihilate the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Charter, or to reduce them to des peaux de chagrin, that is, to shrivel them beyond recognition, if not transform them into mere legal fictions,” reads the submission.

Section 1 of the Charter allows judges to override Charter rights with no checks and balances, no recourse for citizens. Section 33 allows legislatures to override rights in a limited way and the citizens can vote out governments that they find abusive.

None of the people you will hear from on this issue ,who support the Carney government’s move, will ever ask that judges have their ability to override rights curtailed in anyway.

Expect several provinces, if not all, to oppose this attempt to change the Charter via judicial decree.

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