Tory MP retracts suggesting jailing bad journalists

Canadian Press

Vernon, B.C. — A backbench Conservative MP has retracted a statement he made earlier while blasting the media for its testy relationship with Prime Minister Stephen Harper: that reporters who write distorted articles should be jailed.

In a brief column sent to several newspapers in his Okanagan-Shuswap riding, Colin Mayes said that might help the public “get accurate and true information.”

Mr. Mayes seemed to suggesting in his column that the media be covered by something like the Conservative government's proposed Federal Accountability Act, which would prosecute elected officials and senior public servants who break the public trust.

But in a statement issued Friday, Mr. Mayes said he is retracting the comments "without reservation."

Mr. Mayes adds that he fully respects the freedom of the press and regrets making the earlier comments.

The column was e-mailed Thursday to nine small Okanagan papers, as well as the Vernon Daily Courier, by Wayne McGrath, Mr. Mayes's executive assistant.

“Maybe it is time that we hauled off in handcuffs reporters that fabricate stories, or twist information and even falsely accuse citizens,” he writes.

The Courier recently decided not to publish the MP's regular columns.

On Wednesday, David Wylie, the paper's managing editor, published an editorial saying Mr. Harper's media policies were “mimicking the ploys of an authoritarian state ...”

Mr. Harper has restricted access to ministers after cabinet meetings and barred reporters from observing photo opportunities.

Ministers are also required to restrict their public comments to the government's five key priorities and clear contacts with the media through the Prime Minister's office.

Mr. Mayes, a businessman and former mayor of Dawson City, Yukon and Salmon Arm, B.C., easily won the solidly Tory riding in the Jan. 23 election, replacing the retiring Darryl Stinson.

In his column, he writes that he was “perturbed” by the media's reaction to Mr. Harper's attitude to reporters.

“The media has blatantly painted a picture that our government is not open and transparent,” he writes. “We were elected just two months ago to run the affairs of the country for the people, not to accommodate the media.”

Along with business people, politicians and public servants, the media also has the public trust, he writes.

While not all media are bad, the Tory backbencher says, “boy, would the public get accurate and true information if a few reporters were hauled away to jail!”

But it will never happen “because the media would cry ‘censorship' and ‘authoritarian state' ... but the truth is we need ethical leadership from the media too.”

Mr. Mayes could not be reached for comment Thursday evening.

Mr. Wylie said he thought Mr. Mayes's comments were “a little over the top.

“If members of his government are trying not to paint themselves as extremists or fanatics, this is not the way to go about doing it.”

So what did Harper accomplish during the meeting?

At the very least, it was a low-stress introduction to the world of high-level international meetings, and a chance to build a relationship with Bush. He and Bush seemed to have a cordial, friendly relationship, and agreed they were coming from the same page when it came to core values.

That should be a wake-up call, or at least a jolt anyway, for those Canadians who are optimistic enough to want to believe that Stephen Harper is not the crazy, bible-thumbing right-winger that he is. Bush and Harper sharing "core values"? I shudder to think about what those "core values" may be, and that Harper is going to claim that Canadians, by virtue of some of us having voted for his party, share those very same values and gave him a "mandate" to do whatever his "values" dictate.

These values, apparently, includes barring reporters' access to cabinet ministers, who cannot be trusted to talk to the press and not screw up. Screw up being revealing what kind of right wing nuts this party is made up of and scaring the hell out of the public.

Harper's latest victim: the "One Tonne Challenge" program. That should come as no surprise given his Kyoto-bashing speeches in the waning days of the election campaign.