Maybe there is more to Hunter Tootoo's resignation.... (From the Globe and Mail)
Trudeau needs to clear cloud of mystery around Minister Tootoo’s exit
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CAMPBELL CLARK
OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, Jun. 02, 2016 6:00AM EDT
Last updated Thursday, Jun. 02, 2016 6:00AM ED
A cabinet minister disappeared from public view late Tuesday in a manner that left a whiff of mystery.
Hunter Tootoo might have resigned his post as Minister of Fisheries and Oceans to seek treatment for an addiction, with the Prime Minister wishing him well and taking a few questions on the loss of a member of his cabinet. Mr. Tootoo would then have been able to take time, in private, for treatment.
Instead, Justin Trudeau issued a terse written statement Tuesday night, and offered equally terse public remarks – and took no questions at a suddenly announced appearance before the Liberals’ caucus meeting Wednesday morning. There were no get-well good wishes.
Oddly, Mr. Tootoo, the MP for Nunavut, was leaving not just cabinet but also the Liberal caucus – a step usually forced on someone caught in scandal or taken by an MP facing investigation.
“This was his own choice after a very difficult situation and we will have nothing further to say on this matter,” Mr. Trudeau said.
Ministers who marched into the caucus meeting really didn’t say anything further, insisting they would respect Mr. Tootoo’s privacy.
Certainly, anyone seeking treatment for addiction deserves some privacy. But a minister of the Crown has to expect a little less than the rest of us. And a prime minister has to accept his duty to provide some basic transparency about his department. Instead, Mr. Trudeau fed a mystery.
Why is it, reporters sought to ask, that Mr. Tootoo left the Liberal caucus? After all, when Liberal MP Seamus O’Regan announced he was seeking treatment for an alcohol problem, he stayed in the caucus – and Mr. Trudeau tweeted his “full support.” Had something else happened with Mr. Tootoo?
On Wednesday morning, television news networks were airing those questions. CTV News said unnamed sources had told it that Mr. Tootoo’s resignation followed an unspecified incident at the Liberal convention in Winnipeg last weekend – a report The Globe and Mail did not confirm.
At his caucus meeting, Mr. Trudeau told his MPs not to believe the speculation about Mr. Tootoo, according to Liberal sources. But why was Mr. Trudeau telling his 183 MPs that if he wasn’t willing to tell the Canadian public?
At times, it seemed as though Mr. Trudeau was going out of his way to fuel the rumour mill, not quash it, with silence. This was the first minister to leave Mr. Trudeau’s young cabinet. Mr. Tootoo was the only minister from the Far North, an Inuk who was seen as, if not a star, a bright light – smart, forthright, with charisma. He was a drinker, and smoked a lot of cigarettes, but his sudden departure was a surprise. Questions naturally follow.
Is there more to Mr. Tootoo’s departure? It is not mere lurid gawking to ask. This isn’t a simple human-resources matter with an employee. Nor is it merely a matter of empathetic Canadians affording privacy to an individual who deserves support – that path allows privacy to become an easy pretext for cover-up. The conduct of powerful public figures demands the answers to some basic questions.
To put one bluntly: Was this a simple choice to seek treatment, or did some misconduct by a minister of the Crown trigger the resignation?
That, at least, was a question that Mr. Trudeau should have stood and answered, if only to squash the speculation the PM told his MPs not to believe. The Prime Minister doesn’t need to deliver details of Mr. Tootoo’s private life.
He does need to assure Canadians that this is simply a case of all-too-common human affliction, and not ministerial misconduct.
And Mr. Tootoo is obviously entitled to privacy for treatment. The big step of seeking help for addiction is undoubtedly bigger for public figures. It probably seemed almost impossible to past generations of politicians. When people such as Mr. O’Regan do it, it should inspire hope. Mr. Tootoo deserves support. But he was a sitting minister who suddenly left, and Mr. Trudeau shouldn’t let it seem like a mystery.
. 10+ years we knew of declines. Where is the plan from DFO to put more fish in, or repair river? How many more studies do we need to tell there is a problem here?
