A few weeks ago Jasmine MacDonnell, an aide to Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt, left behind some documents at an Ottawa television bureau. In the storm that followed opposition members howled for Raitt’s resignation, but in the end it was Jasmine MacDonnell who lost her job.
SDA commenter batb noted as an aside that Jasmine MacDonnell happens to the daughter of Ralston MacDonell, a prominent fundraiser for Michael Ignetieff, and made the sound point that “you’d think that if your father is a fundraiser for Michael Ignatieff…you might be MORE careful in the carrying out of your duties as communications secretary for a (Conservative) MP.”
You’d think. But today, there’s a new storm: Steve Maher of the Halifax Chronicle Herald apparently got his hand of a tape on which Raitt can allegedly be heard making unflattering remarks about a cabinet colleague. Seems Jasmine MacDonnell forgot to shut the tape off after an interview, and then subsequently, according to CP’s sources, “left her tape recorder in a House of Commons washroom…”
You have to feel sorry for poor forgetful Jasmine MacDonnell, who is now seeking an injunction to prevent release of the tape.
first one of the lot that says he or she is ready to take a lie detector test is the one I will believe.
There is urbane and affable Lloyd Robertson on CTV. Over to Robert Fife. One can sense the mounting excitement. All the Conservatives have to do is just wait it out.
I have come to the conclusion that many of the media have the outward appearance of well groomed and confident adults. Their mentality is that of pre- adolescents. A bunch of snotty school kids, overjoyed that “little Mary or Johnny” as the case maybe, “got caught”.
If Stephen Harper ever gets a majority…….
I think they have everyone fooled and probably laughing at all of you. The day this whole “scandal” broke was the same day the liberal dude plead guilty of fraud in regards to the adscam theft. He also mentioned that he would reveal names. Has anyone seen this reported anywhere. No, I didn’t think so. Neither have I. This “Raitt-Gate was all staged to bury this adscam news.
@batb: Here’s another crucial line from Mr. Akin’s news report: “Maher notified MacDonnell in February that he had her tape recorder…”
Why is this crucial? Because it sort of blows your conspiracy theory out of the water.
Unless you happen to believe that Ms. MacDonnell is in fact so ingenious that she actually concocted a scheme to (1) get hired as a CPC staffer, (2) work her way up to the position of Ministerial comms director, (3) plant the tape recorder at the Chronicle-Herald in February, (4) lie low for 4-5 months, (5) plant the briefing binder at CTV studios, (6) wait for that to blow up a week later, (7) get fired, and (8) signal the Chronicle-Herald to then and only then publish the coinciding story about the tape recorder.
Deep breaths folks.
The story is why didn’t a national news network return the documents? If indeed as they have made great hay of, these documents were secret would not have been the honourable thing to do be return them? No, they sat on the binder for days. Then they grew a non-story. Next, the old guy with the bad teeth announces a big story. He passes it to that correspondent with the rapidly disappearing face (hey Mr. Fife how is that you find time to eat between sitting on binders and all that other stuff you do?) and all the sudden we have a story.
Gee…do you think it could be about ratings?
As for the bathroom thing. That’s just creepy.
Patriotism equals turning off the TV.
Liberals playing Gotcha politics again because IT’S ALL THEY’VE GOT! No decent policies and they haven’t learned a damn thing from Adscam.
It’s all they’ve got. But I have to say that I would not have hired that girl because of her father’s connections.
“Waiting it out” is good advice, but I hope Lisa Raitt can deliver on the “sexy opportunity” to get this reactor back up and isotopes flowing. Macdonnell needs to prove she isn’t that incompetent or she will be a Liberal forever.
The only real story here is Jasmine MacDonnell, and if she’s incompetent or a mole. The rest is insignificant, although it may be Maher’s biggest story in his 20-year career as a journalist forced to work in a tiny cubicle in “The Hot Room”, as he calls it. Paragraph 47 of Maher’s affidavit has insight into the “expensive and time comsuming” exercise of collecting news trivia, for those interested in a reporter’s routine.
There is no doubt about this, Lorraine makes the most sense, but Alienated makes me laugh the loudest
The idea that Jasmine MacDonnell is a liberal mole and not simply incompetent is beyond credulity.
If that was the case, you’d think she would have edited out the part where Raitt describes Ignatieff being instructed by a couple of bankers not to defeat the government and bring on an election. Ignatieff doesn’t exactly come off too well in that part.
But I suppose a conspiracy theory is more entertaining.
Jasmine MacDonnell — $120,000 p.a. and only 26 years old !!!
… and still forgetting top secret documents and losing a recorder in the washroom ….!!!!
I hope she doesn’t forget to take her birth control pills … otherwise …!!!!!
The series of events, the forgetting the documents, then leaving a tape running after a meeting to record private conversation between her and the Minister, sorry, it smells like rotten fish.
Now, she’s being taken out of context by the media.
She said the Health Minister is a capable Person but inferred she’s not used to the rough and tumble QP theatrics so she hopes she doesn’t get anything hot. what’s wrong with that?
She called the isotope sexy, meaning sexy for the Opposition and media, which it obviously is.
Neither the media or the Opposition are more interested in attacking the Government than the actual subject they’re attacking on.
It’s filthy, low grade politics. It’s obvious the kids are ready to be let out for the summer.
WE have to remember the Liberals did squat to upgrade anything at Chalk river. If they were in power today we’d be in the same situation, maybe worse.
OOPS, that should read BOTH the media and Opposition are more interested in attacking the government than the subject they’re attacking on.
“WE have to remember the Liberals did squat to upgrade anything at Chalk river. If they were in power today we’d be in the same situation, maybe worse.”
Liz, what makes me laugh is when the Liberals in QP referred to the 63-year-old reactor at Chalk River as “old, outdated and decrepit”.
Hmmm, let me see if I got this straight. Prior to Harper becoming PM, the Liberals were in power for 13 years, which means it was fine up to 60 years of being in use. It’s only in years 61, 62 and now 63 that it’s old, outdated and decrepit.
And the MSM lets them get away with this line of attack. Sounds much like reductions in GHGs – only an urgent concern for the MSM once Harper became PM.
The Tape was left in a washroom back in January.
Why did it take this long for it to come out, Why was it delivered to a Halifax reporter? Has the tape changed hands a number of times? Was someone waiting for the right time?
Fife reports that Ms McDonnel was called to come & get it back in january.
Deplorable! Harpo seems to attract the most insenitive to his cabinet. Ritz: “death by a thousand cold cuts” and Raitt: “this is a sexy problem”, and “too hot for the minister of health”. Can you imagine the outrage if a Liberal or NDP had said this. Comments and condemnation would be flying all over these postings. This is sick! Harpo had better fire, better yet call an election and see whre that gets him. For those of you on the Liberal conspiracy kick; no one can put words in a minister’s mouth.
Bryanr,
Read Mahar’s affadavit, referenced earlier.
Mahar didnt actually listen to it till early June. She had 5 months to pick it up and never did. Only when she got canned for leaving something else behind did he listen….thinking hmmm this woman does this alot.
Assuming you believe the affadavit, and no reason not to. McDonnell is a scatterbrain.
Clearly she did other things correctly since she was promoted. As for the contents. Well the issue is Sexy, in the sense that it is attractive, which is what this means. And her criticism of the health minister is pretty minor. But the health minister comes out looking better for the comments, prudent etc.
But Raitt, well she is going to take a huge hit on this. Isnt worth resigning over. She identifies the problem, money for chalk river, but is revealed as a very ambitious person, perhaps overly so. If she had plans to be leader they are out the window until she builds a long and unblemished track record.
Slow and Steady wins the race. In the conservative women prominence race, looks like Leona the tortoise got a lead over Lisa the Hare.
For those who say she is ignoring Canadians health…ulm….she was actually trying to keep Chalk River open so there were isotopes available, unlike the former head of Nuclear Safety who imperiously shut it down.
Anyway. Raitt isnt going anywhere. Even the Globe buried the story.
Who of us has never said anything “over the line” about a customer or co-worker when they thought they were speaking in confidence ?. I know I’m guilty of that. I don’t blame Minister Rait at all for what was said on the recording. I do, however come out against MacDonnell for violating the trust that Minister Rait had in her. Of course, with her father being a fundraiser & aquaintence of Iggy & a Liberal to boot, I can see that this kind of thing was par for the course in the MacDonnell household.
The idea that Jasmine MacDonnell is a liberal mole and not simply incompetent is beyond credulity.
If that was the case, you’d think she would have edited out the part where Raitt describes Ignatieff being instructed by a couple of bankers not to defeat the government and bring on an election. Ignatieff doesn’t exactly come off too well in that part.
But I suppose a conspiracy theory is more entertaining.
Posted by: nate at June 9, 2009 5:59 AM
“Ignatieff doesn’t exactly come off to well in that part”
If only that were true. Is anyone in the media pointing that out ?. No. They are salivating over the prospect of digging up dirt on a Conservative Minister.
The media has definitely changed over the years. I remember when my uncle, who was a commissionaire at the house of commons found a cassette tape left behind in the press gallery. It contained a recording of Pierre Trudeau making disparaging remarks during a native leaders’ presentation to the house. It would have been extremely damaging to the Liberals if the recording had been released. The reporter who made the recording threw it away and none of the other reporters there felt inclined to pick it up.
Things may have been different if the speaker on the tape was the leader of the opposition, but I doubt it.
I don’t think the public much cares about this type of panty sniffing reporting.
Seems like the “rules” have changed or Ottawa is in an alternative universe. How many times has someone come running up and said “you forgot (something)”? … how many times have you been the one running? It’s the decent thing to do … it comes natural to most of us.
The Lost and Found clerk at the HoC must be lonelier than the Maytag repairman.
Typical right wing attack: blame the messenger. The judge in Halifax didn’t think so. Raitt will be gone by the end of the week if Harpo wants to maintain any of the little credibility he has left.
How many of you have removed a tape from a recording machine in a bathroom and instead of putting it in your pocket or purse have left it in a wet and full of germs bathroom?
She was paid to leave the tape.
I’d bet money she was.
There was no tape. It was a digital recorder. I imagine she set it down and then forgot about it.
“I imagine she set it down and then forgot about it.”
Right, Joe – I know that whenever I am in the washroom, I set down my digital recorder. And I know that I ALWAYS have it on because you never know when my boss will say something that might be able to be used against her!
Joe, the most reasonable first impression to get is that she probably set it down and then forgot it. But you can’t stop people from wondering why she had it out, in her hand, in a washroom; it’s not unreasonable to ask the question. Second, if it’s a simple case of forgetfulness, how can one explain this next bit from the affidavit of the reporter far from Ottawa (he’s a Haligonian, like MacDonnell) who ended up getting his hands on it:
“By June 3, 2009 Ms. MacDonnell was no longer an employee of the Government of Canada and she had seemingly no intention of ever picking up the recorder from my office. I assumed that she had abandoned it.”
The reporter had *repeatedly* contacted her to pick up the recorder, long — months — before he finally listened to its contents. Do you think it’s reasonable to attribute that to mere forgetfulness?
If you read Mahers affadavit, the device was picked up by a female colleague. Who listend to part of it, the interview he had with the Minister and returned it to him.
Maher called McDonnel in January to say he had her recorder and to come and pick it up. There is email from Feb I think to indicate that they were trying to arrange it.
McDonnell never picked it up, despite being asked to do so.
The irony is the Liberals were saying she took the fall for the binder….apparently not, she is apparently as a scatterbrained as she comes across, or careless.
As much as I want to believe the conspiracy theory you need to find other evidence that she did it intentionally.
She did however offer other information to Maher that was more valuable….wonder what that was?
“””I discussed the possibility with Dan Leger, Director of News Content for The Chronicle
Herald, and Brian Ward, Assignment Editor. I believed that the mere fact that she had
left the recorder behind might be newsworthy, since it suggested a pattern of carelessness
on her part, and that might reflect on the judgment of the Minister, since Ms. Raitt had
promoted Ms. MacDonnell from Press Secretary to Communications Director.””” Mahar Statement
I was not going to comment on this issue, but.. but this is really about the MSM & deep (or not so deep) sources.
Jasmine (& others) are a common source/s (leaky faucets) to MSM…and the reporters have been sharing that info in clever ways. They decided to throw her under the bus, for the good of a story, a story that is more about the MSM than a driven political agenda.
NOTE:
Mahor does not recall who gave him the recorder… lawyer weasel talk with wiggle room all over his statement…He had the recording, or his copy, months before he came up with a reason to use that information. He produced E-mails that prove Jasmine was aware he had the recorder.
Mahar claims to not having listened to the recording before Jasmine was fired, but… BUT offers the reason that the tape found its way to him was that his voice was on the TAPE…
Mahar’s Statement, IMO, has all the elements of a cover-up.
Maher’s affidavit touts his dedication to fair and balanced reporting, although it does seem that there is some relationship between Maher and Garth Turner who was the Liberal candidate defeated by Raitt.
Follow the link to “Should we stay or should we go on Garth’s page. The Chronicle Herald seems to have lost Maher’s column though.
The big clue is in Mahar’s affidavit…..”She suggested she could give me information that would be more valuable.”
Jasmine doesn’t sound like a friendly operative to me…..more like a Liberal plant.
Turkey little at 1:42 PM, I think you’re right on. This kind of crap happens continually, and it’s all about careers. It’s all about that fetid gangrene, in the body of democracy, called the career politician, and for that matter the career hacks that surround them.
The citizen/representative with the “servant’s heart” has been usurped by the career politicians with ambition unfettered by any notion of service. And that applies to the whole political left/right spectrum including Minister Raitt. Depressing isn’t it.
This incident specifically aside, progeny often turn against their parents viewpoints. Kids from very liberal (in the classic sense)upbringing may well become the next generation of conservative opinion.
In my case I rebelled against a fairly conservative religious background and only returned to the conservative (mildly)pov, minus the religious aspect, later in life.
My daughter, in her mid 20’s, is very ‘progressive’; one can only hope, eh?
Stephen, up until the release of Maher’s affidavit the fairest and most reasonable assessment one could make is that it was a mistake, i.e. that she wouldn’t, and didn’t, deliberately, compromise her boss. But Maher’s sworn statement, which John Luft noted above, that “MacDonnell suggested she could give me information that would be more valuable” completely obviates the caring, sharing, reasonable assumption that she would never compromise her employer, no?
Mahar is one of the last people on the planet to defend. However, there is no reason to not believe the story.
If he had the story earlier, why sit on it? Why not bring it out during the H1N1 crisis when Leona was in the news….
As for why Maher doesnt say who gave him the device….it would get them in trouble for not being a good journalist. Honestly, why neither of them listened to the whole thing the first time they got it is beyond me.
I don doubt there is joy in mudville over this whole thing. But without other evidence I dont see it, although I have had my doubts….there were some left wing bloggers talking about Chalk river as going to cause the cons problems a couple of weeks ago. I had a hard time seeing that, given that they were trying to keep the reactor producing.
But until there is other evidence I think this is a case of a scatterbrained aide. The twist is that the cons were right in the first place about letting her go, much to Liberal and Dipper criticism.
Harper has two models to choose from
1) Charest model….minor issue, he resigns and is brought back into cabinet a few months later to much acclaim, “paid his dues”, “learned his lesson”
2) Chretiens stonewall model. Which looks like the one harper will follow.
Cons are tired and just trying to hang on, see Baird. Unforced errors so to speak. Summer cabinet shuffle, strategy rethink and summer and fall of announcements.
Personally…Raitt showed an unpleasant side to her character and one that can reinforce a perception of the government, that it is overly political and hyper-tactical.
Time for the Barbecue circuit.
These pols suck….we need someone like Sarah Palin to run here for PM!!!
A question: Have any mainstream media outlets divulged the information revealed here….that the father of Raitt’s former communication director is a major fundraiser for Ignatieff?
I watched the interview on CTV with the reporter (Maher); my take was that there had been a friendship between Jasmine and him.
The Star did, chutzpahticular, about a week ago in one of those sort of story-background/sidebar columns. This is one of those cases where it’s probably tough for reporters to make too much of it, because it sounds like it implies something. Ahem.
BTW, the information given by Maher in his affidavit —
http://thechronicleherald.ca/pdfs/affidavit_stephen_mahar.pdf
— gives (in effect) a bit of information about his relationship with Jasmine MacDonnell.
Joe: “I imagine she set it down and then forgot about it.”
Joe, she was paid $120,000/year to do, presumably, a superb job. She was the press secretary of a Cabinet Minister. ‘Seems to me she was pretty damned careless to let the digital recorder out of her sight, having the sensitive ‘taping’ of her boss which she “accidentally” recorded. And, then, when told that a journalist had the recorder, she did nothing to get it back for five months?
What the ****?
Stephen: “As much as I want to believe the conspiracy theory you need to find other evidence that she did it intentionally.”
Stephen, I guess if she didn’t do all of this damage intentionally, she must be a monumental ditz. How does one find evidence that she might have been “in the employ” of the Librano$?
She had FIVE MONTHS to get the digital recorder back and did nothing. Was that Gargantuan negligence not intentional. Was it, perchance, “accidental”?
PULEEZE.
Whatever the facts here, Lisa Raitt is better off without Jasmine MacDonnell, though one has to wonder why Ms. MacDonnell was hired as her press secretary in the first place.
There’s some kind of lesson here.
chutzpahticular: “Have any mainstream media outlets divulged the information revealed here….that the father of Raitt’s former communication director is a major fundraiser for Ignatieff?”‘
Yes. It was in a sidebar in the TorStar last Saturday. No dots were connected, there was no editorial comment about it.
But, that’s how I found out about the connection.
batb,
yeah I think it is clear McDonnel is challenged in the organizational department.
Look at the alternative, why would Maher sit on the story for so long.
When deciding between a conspiracy, which requires organzation and planning, and human stupidity I think stupidy is the more likely explaination.
As for other proof that she was working for the Libs….lets see what comes out, where she ends up. I dont dismiss it, I just dont see the evidence to support the hypothesis. I am no fan of Maher, he has been a traveller in some odd theories on other stories. But I dont think he is in league with McDonnell and I dont think McDonnell is in league with the Liberals.
This is embarassing but at the end of the day an amobitious minister is seeking to find money to keep Chalk river producing isotopes. There isnt much of a scandal here. It would be different if she was trying to shut the thing down and cut funding.
Just so, Stephen.
“Yes. It was in a sidebar in the TorStar last Saturday. No dots were connected, there was no editorial comment about it.
But, that’s how I found out about the connection.”
Thanks, batb.
EBD, thanks for the link.
Has anyone considered that Maher’s timing was useful in nudging the outcome of today’s Nova Scotia election?
From the article linked at the top: “They (‘sources’) say the tape was left on accidentally after recording an interview with journalists, and captured private comments by Raitt.” HOURS of “private comments”.
And then got left in a bathroom. And then wound up in the hands of reporters for Halifax-based papers.
From yesterday’s article in the Chronicle Herald: “…ms. MacDonnell misplaced the voice recorder containing the recording in the (bathroom at the?) press gallery in Ottawa, and asked the Chronicle Herald to hold it for her until she could collect it. Five months later, she had not picked it up.”
And a couple of weeks ago, she left documents marked SECRET at a studio in the hands of CTV reporters, and didn’t make any effort to chase them down for several days.
Nobody’s accusing this girl of being bright, but it seems to me that she knew she was about to get “resigned” and decided to do as much damage as possible on the way out. People are making the mistake of assuming that because something is dishonest, it has to be a “conspiracy”, machiavellian and brilliant and well thought out. Clearly Jasmine couldn’t organize a p!ssup at a brewery. But I’m sure she was out to damage Raitt.
Just watched a Fife report on CTV News Channel. It is to laugh!
Bob points out that Raitt refused to apologize for her remarks, that she never acknowledged them as being offensive.
Where’s Bob’s apology for his “knuckle-draggers” remark? Made against “some Conservative MPs” as Bob put it, who are they? Give us names, Bob. Where’s the acknowledgment that the remark was offensive? I’m a supporter of the CPoC. Isn’t he saying that, by extension, I’m a knuckle-dragger? One rule for journalists, another for politicians it seems.
On the John Baird comments, which was a companion piece to the Raitt story, when Torontonians decide to hold the LPC accountable, then maybe they’ll have some credibility. On Adscam, their dishonesty was exposed, saying we needed to wait for Gomery before passing judgment. Then when the facts came out, they painted Toronto Liberal red again anyway, save for a few NDP seats. Then with the incompetent Dion at the reigns, they decided to add to the Liberals seat total in that city. Again, when Torontonians hold the LPC to account, then maybe they’ll be taken seriously.
It would seem that there are two Joe’s in the comment section and let me state that this Joe, Joe the first, does not believe that this ‘oversight’ was accidental. My biggest question is what else was on the tape. I read somewhere that the recorder was used in meetings and then ‘accidentally’ turned on during a car ride. Was the meetings still on the machine or had it been deleted and by whom.
Did she buy a new digital recorder? Guess on what she was paid she could afford to.
Black Mamba wrote: “Clearly Jasmine couldn’t organize a p!ssup at a brewery. But I’m sure she was out to damage Raitt.”
Sounds plausible to me.
Where I hold Raitt responsible is for treating Jasmine MacDonnell as though she were an adult and worthy of trust.
I watched CTV coverage…I heard no mention of Jasmine’s father being an Ignatieff fundraiser. Maher chooses his words carefully and used the term “businessman.”