McNeil Govt Quietly Kills Baby But News “Leaks Out” In Our New Online World

news of the killing seeped out online

Governments killing babies and orphans is never politically popular - even Stephen McNeil’s mother could have told him that.

But in the old days, in the cosy old days, the McNeil government Lands & Forest bureaucrats could reply on the few reporters who bothered to cover that department to be so safely embedded as to be basically in their pocket.

They would never have squealed - not back in the good old days.

I can well remember that when I formally complained about a too-cosy Lands and Forest helicopter journey a CBC TV reporter took , it resulted in me being persona no grata at the people’s news corporation for ever after.

(As an environmentalist, I was never persona plus grata at the Pulp Mills’ best-friend-with-benefits inside the provincial government.)

Even today, if you want to maintain a  working relationship with Lands and Forests, you make your complaints about their actions privately - inside the Big Tent.

You never - ever - voluntarily go public about your unhappiness.

And getting inside the Big Tent is no more easy than is being invited to Stephen McNeil presser  : you have to be vetted as generally tame and safe and harmless.

But Lands and Forest’s donations basically come in one big lump every four years - at election time.

 Because once a tight-fisted government is elected (like the McNeil government) that likes its departments to hire expensively paid PR flacks to never reply to media questions, you can safely hope to ride out storms over killing cute little baby orphans.

 Your pay cheque is safe.  Department functions will still be funded tomorrow.

You can safely ignore reporters’ questions - in fact if you want to stay on the good side of Stephen McNeil, you best never ever return reporters’ calls.

But Hope For Wildlife depends on  the continuous flow of many small donations and upon many small volunteers - it can’t afford to be seen as arrogant to people’s outrages over killing baby orphans - so Hope Swinimar agreed to talk to the reporter when she called, after the news of a recently killed baby leaked out online.

I sure hope that Ms Swinimar’s talking to the reporter, even if she did so only when the reporter began the call, won’t damage the Hope for Wildlife sanctuary in my home village of Seaforth : it does very much needed work nursing wildlife back to a life in the wilds.

But in today’s new world of civilians and amateurs leaking all sorts of stuff online - the recent amateur video of George Floyd’s murder-by-cop’s-knee comes to mind -  government departments forcing stakeholders into “cosy relationships between fellow professionals”  (‘let this just be OUR little secret, alright?’) aren’t always going to hold up anymore.

McNeil’s staged appearance of openness about Covid-19 has made him Nova Scotia’s most popular premier since polling began : but his reality  - that of a love for excessive secrecy , on inquiry calls and on government business in general - is going to see him - in turn - get euthanized by the voters at the ballot box on election day.

What goes around, comes around...