pco

This morning I sent Suzanne Legault, Canada’s information commissioner, the following letter. Updates will be posted here as warranted.

Amy Minsky tallies the Privy Council Office.

After fighting for disclosure, the Canadian Press turns up still more evidence of efforts to rename the Government of Canada in Stephen Harper’s image.

The Hill Times tallies the number of people employed by the government for the purposes of “communications.”

So yeah, I guess this clears up any lingering uncertainty over just how much light Michael Ignatieff’s new advisor may eventually be able to shed on life inside Langevin:

Liberal employment of Kevin Chan is extremely sensitive for the government because the Privy Council advises Harper on policy, administrative and political matters.

Full disclosure: I have no idea what, if anything, the significance is of this latest addition to Team Ignatieff, but it does have a pleasing sort of unpredictability to it, if nothing else.
Ignatieff snags senior PCO bureaucrat as adviser

OTTAWA – Newly minted Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff has snagged a senior adviser right out from under Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s nose.

Sources confirmed late Tuesday that Kevin Chan, executive assistant and director to top federal bureaucrat Kevin Lynch, has joined Ignatieff’s team.

As clerk of the Privy Council Office, Lynch directly advises the prime minister on policy, administrative and political matters. He is the link between the Prime Minister’s Office and the deputy ministers who run each government department.

See, commenters-who-were-appalled-that-I-was-insufficiently-appalled-by-the-breach? The diabolical genius(es) behind Sunday’s listserv shenanigans are now the subject of an intense virtual manhunt by Canada’s “secretive electronic counter-espionage police.” Abandon hope, all ye who dareth prank the Prime Minister: the Communications Security Establishment is on the case: