Aboriginal Affairs, minister's office silent on media line that 'lied' about privacy watchdog's response to spying allegation

By Jorge Barrera
APTN National News
The deputy minister and minister’s office of Aboriginal Affairs were involved in crafting media lines around an internal investigation into allegations federal officials spied on a First Nations children’s advocate, internal documents show, yet both continue to hold their silence over who authorized a misleading statement claiming the privacy watchdog had no interest in opening an investigation.

Documents obtained by APTN National News show that both the deputy minister’s office and the minister’s office were directly involved in the development of media lines around responses to questions concerning an internal investigation launched by the department into the spying allegations.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner found that officials in Aboriginal Affairs and Justice Canada collected personal information by cyber snooping on Cindy Blackstock, the executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring society, according to a report released Tuesday.

Aboriginal Affairs, however, initially claimed in a statement emailed to APTN National News that the privacy watchdog saw no need to open an investigation into Blackstock’s allegation that federal officials were spying on her. The claim was based on a Dec. 5, 2011, letter from the assistant privacy commissioner to Aboriginal Affairs deputy minister Michael Wernick.

The claim sparked a rare response from the privacy watchdog, which issued a statement denying Aboriginal Affairs’ interpretation. The watchdog also released the letter which actually informed Wernick that privacy investigators were considering launching their own probe.

When pressed on the issue, the department then issued an updated statement saying that the privacy watchdog actually only returned documents forwarded by former Aboriginal affairs minister John Duncan from the department’s internal probe which found no wrongdoing by its officials.

Despite repeated questions, Minister Barnard Valcourt’s office and the department have refused to reveal who was responsible for the media line claiming the privacy watchdog “would not be conducting an investigation.”

Internal drafts from Jan. 19, 2012 on the developing of media lines, however, show a direct link between minister’s office and the deputy minister and lines developed to deal with Blackstock’s allegations and the department’s internal probe, which was initiated by Duncan in November 2011 in response to media reports about the issue.

In one section, under the heading “if pressed on the status review” of the internal investigation into Blackstock’s allegation, a portion is left open for “input from DMO,” meaning the deputy minister’s office.

The drafts, obtained by Blackstock through an Access to Information request and provided to APTN National News, also reveal that both the deputy minister’s office and the minister’s office needed to sign off on approval for the media lines.

Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett said Aboriginal Affairs had “lied” about the issue.

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