Guard says Liberal ties cost him promotion
Corrections officer seeks judicial review, claims he was asked about political links
Globe and Mail
TORONTO[!-- /dateline --] -- A federal prison guard lost an appeal for a promotion after the Correctional Service of Canada asked him about his support for the Liberal Party, the Liberal literature he has read and the Liberal events he has attended, according to affidavits recently filed in Federal Court.[!-- /Summary --] David Wreggitt, a guard at the medium-security Joyceville Institution near Kingston, is seeking a judicial review of a decision made by a Public Service Commission appeal board, which turned down his bid for a promotion. The 47-year-old father of three says that, during a hearing on April 29, 2004, he was peppered with questions about his affiliation with the Liberal Party, including why he was a party member and how many times he had volunteered.
"I felt like I was on trial for simply being a Canadian citizen . . . just for voting and going to a function that's a political function," Mr. Wreggitt told The Globe and Mail.
Two witnesses at the hearing, Mr. Wreggitt's wife and his union representative, have submitted sworn statements that describe similar questions. His wife, Michelle Merideth-Wreggitt, said she found the questions unnerving.
"They weren't nicely asked. They weren't politely asked. It was not just out of interest. It was very accusatory," she said.
Most of the employees from the Correctional Service of Canada who were present for the hearing, and the Public Service Commission's chairman of hearing, didn't return messages left by The Globe. John Emerton, the staffing officer who allegedly cross-examined Mr. Wreggitt about his ties to the Liberals, refused to comment.
"I need to refer this to our communications people," Mr. Emerton said. No one from communications contacted The Globe after the newspaper spoke with Mr. Emerton.
C.E.S. (Ned) Franks, a professor emeritus at Queen's University and an expert on public administration, said there's a fine line between ensuring that partisan politics don't seep into the public service and stomping on someone's right to align themselves with any political organization they wish.
The spirit of the Public Service Commission Act is to allow unlimited rights for political participation, as long as it doesn't harm a public servant's capacity to do their work impartially or threaten the public's trust, Mr. Franks said. "They have no business asking anything about how he votes," he said. "If that ever came up in the interview, that's grounds for an appeal."
Mr. Wreggitt said he also found it suspicious that a recording of the hearing has disappeared. When he tried to subpoena the tape for his case before the Federal Court, the Public Service Commission told him it has no record of an April 29, 2004, hearing, he said.
However, a recording of the hearing that took place on April 28, 2004 -- the day before Mr. Wreggitt says he was questioned about his Liberal ties -- indicates there was a hearing the next day. At end of the session, John Ojalammi, the chairperson of the appeal hearing, states: "We're obviously not going to finish today . . . Why don't we resume tomorrow?"
The promotion that Mr. Wreggitt applied for would have made him a Level 3 correctional officer, essentially a supervisor. Like most in the public service, he was given an assessment to make sure the promotion was based on merit.
However, he was given a low score in the "suitability" category because his warden at the time, Donna Morrin, complained about him speaking to two politicians about a voluntary drug-testing program that he helped run at the prison. In particular, she complained about how he once wrote a letter to then-Liberal MP Lynn Myers, who was the parliamentary secretary to the solicitor general at the time, without telling the warden.
However, an internal e-mail written by Patrick Laverty, a recruitment manager with the correctional service, that was obtained by Mr. Wreggitt, points out that his letter was supportive of the program.
"The 'letter' was not critical of the management team, it was not a whistle-blowing letter. Would we be accused of muzzling an employee and denying him his legal right to communicate with government officials," Mr. Laverty wrote.
When Mr. Wreggitt appealed his low score to the Public Service Commission, he said he expected to be questioned about the letter -- not his ties to the party.
Mr. Wreggitt says his displays of support for the Liberal Party have been limited to two $100 donations and answering phones during the 1993 election. He has also attended three barbecues that Peter Milliken, the speaker of the House of Commons and the MP for Kingston and the Islands, holds at his house every year. In the January federal election, he voted for the Conservative Party, he says.
Dude, you live in Missori. No Canadian will ever accept you and yet you are pissing off your own kind. If I was you, I'd just STFU.
I'm Canadian and I have accepted him and luckily for us you are NOT him so why don't YOU stfu?
Most of us DO care what Sportsdude has to say.....thanks anyway.
Chicklet wrote:
I'm Canadian and I have accepted him and luckily for us you are NOT him so why don't YOU stfu?
You carry about as much consequence in this word as a gnat...probably even less...
You and I know that if sportsdude went to Canada with this Michael Moore "I love Canada" BS he would still be called an American. Which is why he is a primo loser, he thinks trying to be Canadian will make up for the deficiencies in his own life. He needs to realize that the grass is not greener on the other side of the 49th...assheads like Michael Moore lie and say that it is...
I'm wondering why you would have such an issue with someone who has hopes and dreams. You might want to give it a shot.
Not everybody cares whether someone is Canadian or American....many care only if they are pleasant and positive and where they come from doesn't matter much.
Ugly pill this morning ?
P.C. wrote:
Most of us DO care what Sportsdude has to say.....thanks anyway.
Same guy here, but if you do, that is b/c you are mainly Canadian.
The only persons who will affirmatively support mr ithesportsdude are either being nice to him or just being delusional. This wannabe Canadian clearly would not get enough points to qualify as a PR. Don't you see that all this wannabee Canadian stuff is a symptom of a borderline personality?
STFU wrote:
he thinks trying to be Canadian will make up for the deficiencies in his own life.
And what, pray care, are the deficiencies in your life that account for your singular lack of manners?
Not really wrote:
This wannabe Canadian clearly would not get enough points to qualify as a PR
Thank goodness for that, or else he would be another foreign-born cab driver with a PhD in Vancouver.
Dissident wrote:
STFU wrote:
he thinks trying to be Canadian will make up for the deficiencies in his own life.
And what, pray care, are the deficiencies in your life that account for your singular lack of manners?
In what way have I lacked manners? I merely have said what you have been too cowardly to offer.
To the visitor:
Each person has to live their own life and learn their own lessons. SD will do OK. But since you have no life you should probably focus on spelling.
The beauty of DS is that all of these comments will be gone soon.
How have been cowardly? We obviously don't share your opinion. If any of us felt that way about SD's ambitions we would have surely said something. We are not the ones who are cowardly 'GUEST'.
Same as before wrote:
Dissident wrote:
In what way have I lacked manners? I merely have said what you have been too cowardly to offer.
There's a difference between offering facts to back up an argument and using personal attacks. Getting personal during an argument with someone you don't even know is the refuge of the cowardly and the ill-mannered.
Trollio, sorry I can't award more karma--I'm less than an hour away from the last one.
I am not a fan of Michael Moore. I like politics and political discussions thats what makes me tick. I also follow other countries politics very closely. For example if you want to talk British politics I can do that, same with most Europe and South American countries as well. I'm sorry if I sound like I'm pressing on peoples toes and looking like I'm trying to shape people's opinion one way. I'm not. You cannot deny the right of a man or woman for having interests in life. Canada happens to be mine.
On the "american" thing. I've haven't considered myself "american" in about 4 years and to some I have almost "anti-american" feelings. If they call me that so what, I'm going to let a little phrase cut me down? Please. So since you 'hate' americans that come up here I bet you didn't have kind words towards Jim Green during the Vancouver elections last year.
I'm relatively certain you don't necessarily have to agree with everything somebody says to support their right to dream it or say it. How is this a threat to you.
Dissident: Trollio, sorry I can't award more karma--I'm less than an hour away from the last one.
Allow me.
Friends, just breathe and move along. This too will pass.
True Trollio.....but so do kidney stones.......and they hurt too.
[span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 191);"] P.C. wrote:[/span][br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 191);"][div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 191);"][em]Dissident: Trollio, sorry I can't award more karma--I'm less than an hour away from the last one.[/em][/div] [div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 191);"] [/div] [div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 191);"]Allow me.[/div] [em][/em]Thank you, ladies. (//forums/richedit/smileys/Love/8.gif)
[/p] Manatees are wonderful, SD.
[/p] [em] [/em][/p][em]
[/em]
Trollio wrote:
Friends, just breathe and move along. This too will pass.
I'm sure among you it will. But for people like ithesportsdude, they will be viewed effectively as traitors by their own kind and yet with perpetual suspicion by 99% of Canadians. I'd say that says a lot more about the person than what they are putatively saying.
Did you hear something, P.C.? Awfully quiet in here.
I adore manatees. They are most mesmerizing the way they spiral in slow motion in such a languid way. Peaceful and lovable.
I heard everyone moved out of this thread and back into the lunch thread trollio. Hence the echooooooooooooooooo.
Yes, it must be the manatees I heard. (//forums/richedit/smileys/Happy/2.gif)
P.C. wrote:
I adore manatees. They are most mesmerizing the way they spiral in slow motion in such a languid way. Peaceful and lovable.
The best part in knowing how a torpoedo has hit with arrogant twats is how you pretend it never hit at all in such an aggressive manner. lol
I think so too Trollio.
[img style="WIDTH: 232px; HEIGHT: 152px" height=289 src="vny!://www.manatees.net/manateeb.jpg" width=420]
AAAAAWWWWWW.
How can something with relatively no shape be so adorable. [img style="CURSOR: pointer" onclick=url(this.src); src="vny!://www.cheesebuerger.de/images/more/bigs/c015.gif" border=0]
P.C. wrote:
I think so too Trollio.
[img style="width: 232px; height: 152px;" src="vny!://www.manatees.net/manateeb.jpg" height="289" width="420"]
Heh...the great part on here is that the Canadian still, deep down, don't support an American pretending to know about Canada and the Americans don't trust him.
I think that's part of it P.C. It just looks so cuddly and soft. Kinda reminds me of a stuffed Scott Puff I had as a kid.
Chicklet wrote:
I think that's part of it P.C. It just looks so cuddly and soft. Kinda reminds me of a stuffed Scott Puff I had as a kid.
heh...the best part about how you're posting is how you've deliberately purported to ignore my posts, which means they have pissed you off. mission accomplished!
I think what makes them beautiful is they have no enemies.
I've always yearned to touch one. (and dolphins too, but I got THAT wish last summer.....kind of felt like a wet eraser, lol) Couldn't touch the manatees though, but I was most content to just watch.
Even still the same wrote:
heh...the best part about how you're posting is how you've deliberately purported to ignore my posts, which means they have pissed you off. mission accomplished!
I'll bite.
Let me guess . . . "El Mariachi"? "E Euro Dude"? "Gunta [whatever]"? "Schizohindu"? "Wicked/Lemmings/LRon or whatever"? One of those other rage-o-holics accustomed indiscriminately dumping their verbal excrement on DV?
Guys, until you get your DV drug back, you're just going to have to take your bullying behaviour off the computer and put it back into your lives where it belongs. You do have lives, don't you?
They're endangered aren't they?
P.C. wrote:
I think what makes them beautiful is they have no enemies.
I've always yearned to touch one. (and dolphins too, but I got THAT wish last summer.....kind of felt like a wet eraser, lol) Couldn't touch the manatees though, but I was most content to just watch.
What I like is that manatees aren't poisoned with aggression. Would that humans could be so good. Manatees are prettier than people who can only think ugly thoughts and say ugly things.
Well said Dissident.
I believe they are Chicklet. Lovely gentle souls.
Dissident wrote:
Even still the same wrote:
heh...the best part about how you're posting is how you've deliberately purported to ignore my posts, which means they have pissed you off. mission accomplished!
I'll bite.
Let me guess . . . "El Mariachi"? "E Euro Dude"? "Gunta [whatever]"? "Schizohindu"? "Wicked/Lemmings/LRon or whatever"? One of those other rage-o-holics accustomed indiscriminately dumping their verbal excrement on DV?
Guys, until you get your DV drug back, you're just going to have to take your bullying behaviour
off the computer and put it back into your lives where it belongs. You do have lives, don't you?
Wrong, wrong and wrong. Heh more of a life than you, since you feel compelled to post such indignant vitriol. BTW, you seem to have made a lot of enemies, whoever you are. You have joined the ranks of "I'lll never get laid in this space-time continuum loserdom".
I admit it. I'm really the one who has joined the ranks of "I'lll never get laid in this space-time continuum loserdom". I just wanted someone to be my friend and I went about it all wrong. Forgive me?
okay i give in wrote:
I admit it. I'm really the one who has joined the ranks of "I'lll never get laid in this space-time continuum loserdom". I just wanted someone to be my friend and I went about it all wrong. Forgive me?
Why?
Another thing I like is that manatees live in their own environment. They don't create pollution and try to send it elsewhere. And they mind their own business.
And evidently they're not onanistic. Or at least they don't need a computer for those purposes.