Is Marie Josee Lapointe about to beat a hast rereat from the Weave Shed?
I just noticed this last evening on the Cornwall Inquiry website (cornwallinquiry.ca)
A media spokesperson for the Commission – Marie-Josée Lapointe on an interim basis – will speak to all other issues outside of process.
“On an interim basis”?
Can anyone tell me when they first learned that Ms. Lapointe is with the inquiry only “on an interim basis”?
Does anyone know when the caveat “on an interim basis” was added? Can anyone help me out?
I do know that Lapointe was retained to do media relations for Justice Glaude very quickly after he was commissioned to head the Inquiry – right around the time word go out that, contrary to Atttorney General Bryant’s, assertion Glaude does indeed have connections to Cornwall.
Ms. Lapointe has been there ever since. That’s close to a year now.
Are things getting uncomfortable for Ms. Lapointe since word of the untendered contract seeped into the news ?
Or is publicity about her political connections making things uncomfortable for Justice Glaude? or for the McGuinty government? Or anyone else?
Or is Ms. Lapointe just thinking she’ll move on when something of more interst comes her way?
Interesting, she was front page news in the National Post yesterday: “Smoke and mirrors: Life imitates film for tobacco lobbyists.” (scroll to last article)
But, strange as it seems, the article makes no mention of the untendered contract which made Lapointe and her political connections headline-news last week. I’d say it could be seen as a coincidentally-timed-puff-piece on Lapointe’s seven-year tenure as spokesman for the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers Council, (CTMC) a lobby group for the Canadian Tobacco Industry. – not the sort of thing you expect to make front page news in the Saturday’s Post.
But what caught my eye is that Jim Flaherty’s name is brought into the article in relation to a smokers’ advocacy group called mychoice.ca, which, according to its website “is financed entirely by the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers’ Council.”
And the President of Mychoice is a Nancy Daigneault, who happens to be the former director of communications for Jim Flaherty, the new federal Minister of Finance and former provincial Attorney General for Ontario during the Mike Harris years.
Is there more to this than meets the eye? I haven’t a clue. But I truly am wondering what about Ms. Lapointe’s stint with the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturer’s Association warrants front page news in the National Post? Is this a teaser?
And I’m wondering how well acquainted are Misses Daigneault and Lapointe? I could be mistaken, but I would guess they know each other, probably quite well?
And I’m wondering too how well acquainted are Ms. Lapointe and the Honourable Mr. Flaherty? Flaherty – and the entire Harris government for that matter – was seen as sympathetic to the tobacco industry cause during his tenure as Attorney General – around the same time Ms. Lapointe was working for CTMC.
I’d say there’s more than a few red flags fluttering in the breeze.And I really would appreciate it if anyone could tell me when Ms. Lapointe’s postion as media spokesperson for the Inquiry was desginated “interim.”? Enough for now,
Sylvia