Reality check: Whose lie is it anyway? Harper’s spokesperson gets it wrong again

Faced with anti-Conservative protestors in British Columbia yesterday, Stephen Harper’s spokesman erroneously accused New Democrat MP Libby Davies of “chaining doors” outside Vancouver’s Chinese Cultural Centre to create “a day of terror for local seniors and children.”

“Is this a role of a Member of Parliament to encourage locking and chaining doors of buildings while seniors, veterans, and young children are gathered inside? What if there was a fire? … It's turned into a day of almost terror for local seniors, children, veterans” - Dmitri Soudas, CBC News Network, “Power and Politics”, 10 February 2010.

But was Ms Davies responsible for chains being put on doors? Not according to protest organizers:

“[Protest spokesperson] Mr. [Nathan] Allen dismissed suggestions from the PMO that the protest was engineered by NDP MP Libby Davies.” – GlobeandMail.com, 10 February 2010

And was the protest “a day of terror?” Not according to Vancouver Police:

“Officers removed the chains and there were no injuries or arrests, police said. 'The protest was allowed to safely continue without further incident.’'' – Canadian Press, 10 February 2010

Unfortunately, this latest outburst by Soudas is only the most recent example of the Prime Minister’s top spokesperson making reckless and conspiratorial partisan smears:

July 2009: Providing him with an inaccurate quote, Soudas prompts Harper to go on a partisan tirade against the Liberal Party leader at a G8 forum in Italy. Harper later apologized.

December 2009: While cameras roll, Soudas verbally attacks environmentalist Stephen Guilbeault at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, viciously accusing him of creating an anti-Harper press release that another group was responsible for.

Canadians understand partisan politics. But we should all be concerned that the top spokesperson for the Government – a man we hear from more often than the Prime Minister himself – has gotten it so wrong, so often, and continues to display behaviour that undermines the authority of the office he serves.

It’s time for Stephen Harper to take some responsibility.