Lament for a whistle blower

THE NEW Lemocratic government, hell bent on having
one of its own anointed heading the insurance Corporation
of B.C. (ICBC), is hoping that there is enough delay in the
selection process that the erratic Robyn Allan can be con-

firmed in the post.

Ms. Allan, in case the rush of
ordinary government disaster is
erasing her name from your
memory, is the lady who racked
up 23 demerit points by doing
such things as speeding in school
zones and banging into other cars
while driving under probation.

She seemed puzzled that the
common people cared about this.

With Ms. Allan, as with former
premier Bill Vander Zatm, all
truths emerge very slowly.

For a long time her minister
was telling us what a taut ship she
ran but now the figures have been
released and it turns out that she
increased. administrative costs at
ICBC by a staggering 14% ina
single year.

It would not be surprising if,
also in the style of Mr. Vander
Zalm talking to the inquiry com-
missioner, she feels that there

’ would never be any problem if
only the wretched press could
learn to stop running around
reporting facts.

Meanwhile, unless there has
-been some announcement to the
contrary which has escaped the
tax-paying rabbie, the hunt goes
on for the ICBC employce who

'. blew the whistle on Ms. Allan.

We have been told there are 30
suspects, all people with computer
access to her bad driving files.
One of them, apparently, sneaked
her record to the newspapers.

The first question.to strike the
fine-paying, tax-paying ordinary
driver is wliy is such information
secret?

When specding fines were paid
in court, it was a matter of pubtic
record. So were accident reports,
such as the accident reports to
police which Ms. Allan inspired.

True, scarcely any newspapers
bothered printing the reports.
There were, and arc, somewhat

larger matters to report than
whether some ordinary citizen has
a lead foot.

: But everybody had a right to
‘get the information and that was
never questioned.

Suddenly, the powers set in
authority over us in Victoria have

‘decided that bad or dangerous
driving.is a secret between them |
and the bad drivers wham they let
loose on our roads. It is none of

the public's business. Begone, .
varlets..

It’s regrettable, the case of Ms.
Allan, because there are some of

Paul
St. Pierre

PAULITICS & PERSPECTIVES |

us out here who think the whistle
blower should be rewarded with
cash and a statue in the park.

There are even more of us who
would welcome some new provin-
cial government, some fresh,
brave government truly bent on
reforms, which would institute a
system to protect whistle blowers -
in the civil service.

The grotesque waste of tax-
payers’ money, which a few of us
have had the dubious privilege of
seeing first-hand, might be reduc-
ed quite sharply if lowly civil ser-
vice employees knew they could
report cases without losing their
jobs or their chances for promo-
tion.

Of course the notion that a
public servant's first duty should
be to the public is perhaps too
outrageous to be contemplated at
this time.

Eventually, ordinary men and
women will awaken to the fact
that the waste of their money
through incompetence and greed
verges on the criminal and then,
and only then, their rage against
both the elected government and
its servants will emerge and
become effective.

Until that happens, bureaucrats
in the higher ranks will shelter
behind secrecy provisions and do
everything they can to punish
those who would open windows
and let the light in.

It is the nature of bureaucrats
to eliminate people who reveal
their weaknesses.

Among the thousands of exam-
ples of such bureaucratic
assassinations are two from the

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First World War, These are con-
tained in a scholarly book called
Voltaire's Bastards, by John
Ralston Saul.

One example will be of par-
ticular interest to Canadians, par-
ticularly any who had relatives
who died in the first German gas
attack at Ypres.

In April 1915, French Field
Commander General Ferry heard
that the first gas attack of the war
was to be made :ainst British
and Canadian troops on his flank,
He warned both his superiors and
the Canadians and British.

French Army headquarters was
enraged. They told him first that
he had no right to confer directly
with Alties, but only with
themselves. They also told him he
was a fool to believe the reports.

When the gas attack came as
forecast and the Canadians held
the line at a most critical juncture
of that ghastly war, you might
think that General Ferry was vin-
dicated.

If you think that, you are sim-
ply incapable of understanding the
bureaucratic mind. General Ferry
was fired.

Similarly, shortly before the
Germans attacked Verdun in one
of the worst battles of the war,
French officers at Verdun
reported serious gaps in their
defences. They were ignored.

The German attack proceeded
to demolish the faulty defences
and bleed the French nation white
at Verdun,

Who was punished, not coun-
Hing half a million Fresch
soldiers? The officers who
reported the faulty defences were
fired. They had reported to people
other than their incompetent su-
periors,

Be assured punishment will be
visited on the man or woman who
blew the whistie on Ms. Allan,

The bureaucracy will not, can
not, rest until their snake is slain,
Our clected government, helpless
as always when confronted by bu-
reaucrats, will give an embarrass-_
ed giggle

Friday, March 19, 1993 - North Shore News - 9

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