“The quietest person in the room is the one with the most knowledge.”
That was the first and best piece of advice I received when I arrived on Parliament Hill to work as a political aide a decade ago.
The axiom, shared with me by a prominent cabinet minister’s chief of staff, served to illustrate that, in Ottawa, one should ignore the rumours, whispers, and any story beginning with, “I heard.”
Such tales are mainstays on the Hill, often told by up-and-coming politicos eager to prove their relevance by demonstrating how in-the-know they are. I was guilty of sharing a few myself.
Money, power and bullsh*t are Ottawa’s three currencies (I’ll let you figure out which order they fall in.)
The people who really know things keep their mouths shut. And when secrets can topple careers, they’re kept quiet until they’re needed. When that moment comes, they come out with a bang, not a whimper.
As the online rumour mill ramps ups, I’d caution Canada’s political and media actors to heed the bit of wisdom I received nearly 10 years ago.
Social media is abuzz with anticipation of an impending bombshell story about … well, something.
Aside from rampant speculation, no one seems to know anything about the story, the subject, or the media outlet supposedly spearheading it.
We’re on track to look like fools if nothing materializes.
All of it seems to stem back to a single blog post by former Liberal strategist Warren Kinsella.
In the wake of the resignations of Patrick Brown, Jamie Baillie and Kent Hehr over sexual misconduct allegations, Kinsella said “other men will be going down,” offering one example — sort of.
“One of these men is very, very powerful,” Kinsella wrote. “The stories have been known about him for three years. They are in affidavits, plural. His name will shock you.”
Apart from saying that he thinks now “is the time” for this mystery man to be exposed, there was no claimed knowledge of imminence. But that hasn’t stopped people from standing on tenterhooks every day this week, awaiting the implosion of one of Canada’s favourite sons.
Without concrete information, I’d hope people could take a wait-and-see approach to any such possibilities, but that is too much to ask in the social media age. Instead, we get conspiracy theories ranging from banal intra-office affairs to some that likely involve a George Soros-run Illuminati orgy party in the basement of a Washington pizzeria.
Anything’s possible, I suppose.
If there is a story to be told, the people who know the most are not the ones sounding off about it. This is not directed at Kinsella, but rather the people extrapolating without the sources he has.
One “insider” told me they know the affidavits are real because they know someone who knows someone who signed one. Seriously.
Someone else told me they heard the affidavits are sitting in a filing cabinet in a party’s headquarters, but couldn’t remember where they heard it.
At a press conference Tuesday, CTV reporter Mercedes Stephenson asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau if he knew the identity of the man to whom Kinsella alluded.
Trudeau simply said, “No.”
He was later asked whether he had examined his own conduct with women in light of the flood of #MeToo admissions, prompting a story about volunteering with a McGill University sexual assault centre 25 years ago, where, he said, he learned about “consent, communications, accountability (and) power dynamics.”
Opposition leaders Jagmeet Singh and Andrew Scheer were similarly asked if they had any misconduct in their pasts that was likely to emerge.
Singh said, as a lawyer, he has used language in a legal context that doesn’t align with the survivor-first approach he wants to embrace now.
Scheer said there was nothing of note in his past, adding, “a good friend, when I first got elected, said nothing good ever happens in Ottawa after 8 o’clock, and I’ve tried to live by that rule.”
(Having worked in Ottawa, I can say before 8 p.m. isn’t much better.)
The questions are valid enough, but it’s doubtful any of the leaders would have responded with anything other than denial when asked in such a vague way.
What were we expecting Scheer and Singh to say? “Oh, now that you mention it …” As if.
Those accused of abusing their power and those around them rarely think a hammer is about to drop on them until it does. It’s dangerous to speculate who’s guilty of what without any evidence.
But if an Ottawa bombshell does exist, we know once it breaks that we’ll be told it was an “open secret,” with self-proclaimed insiders telling us they knew all along. Then, television panels and columnists will ask why no one ever spoke up.
Even when so-called open secrets do exist in political corridors, they’re more often wrong than right.
I heard lots about who was sleeping with whom and who made an ass of themselves at which reception, but the times I had anything concrete could be counted on one hand with fingers to spare.
And even then, it was two divorced MPs kissing at a party and a former minister of the Crown almost passing out drunk in an elevator mid-day — not the stuff of #MeToo allegations.
If there is a bona fide account of wrong-doing involving a “very, very powerful” Canadian politician, I hope it sees the light of day and justice is served.
Otherwise, if you know nothing, say nothing.