RCMP called in after defence union stickers pasted to windows of MacKay’s riding office

Defence Minister Peter MacKay’s office is being accused by union officials of acting heavy-handed after the RCMP were called in to deal with pro-defence union stickers put on the windows of the cabinet minister’s Nova Scotia constituency office.

But MacKay’s office says they weren’t the ones who called police.

The tension between MacKay and the union has increased over the past several days after the Union of National Defence Employees staged a rally outside the minister’s New Glasgow, N.S., constituency office on the weekend.

“MacKay doesn’t like any type of criticism but bringing in the national police force to deal with a bunch of stickers is ridiculous,” said John MacLennan, national president of the Union of National Defence Employees. “It’s not like we had an aircraft with a banner that said, ‘We hate Peter MacKay.’”

That was reference to the RCMP’s decision earlier this month to order the pilot of an aircraft carrying an anti-Stephen Harper banner flying over Ottawa and Gatineau to land his plane, even though the aircraft had not entered restricted airspace. The pilot was hired by the Public Service Alliance of Canada, which includes UNDE. The union paid for the plane to fly over the capital region for three hours, with a trailing banner that read, in French, “StephenHarperNousDéteste.ca” (Stephen Harper hates us).

Asked to comment, MacKay’s spokesman Jay Paxton sent an email stating, “This is a matter for the landlord of the building. Minister MacKay’s office did not contact the RCMP.”

The stickers, which can be peeled off easily, carry the slogan “We Are All Affected,” a protest against the government’s decision to terminate or review the jobs of more than 19,000 federal workers.

The rally was held outside MacKay’s constituency office on Saturday, which drew around 140 people.

An RCMP spokesman said they don’t have a record of a call being made to UNDE about the stickers but was checking into the issue further.

Union officials point out that in the case of the aircraft with the anti-Harper banner, the RCMP originally claimed it never ordered the pilot to land. The police force later acknowledged it did order the pilot to land.

The union worker who took the call from the RCMP said the female officer identified herself as being a member of the force’s detachment in the New Glasgow area and that MacKay’s office had filed a complaint. The constable had checked into the complaint and found that 19 stickers had been put on the building.

The union employee said he then phoned MacKay’s riding office, talked to one of the staff members there, who acknowledged a fellow worker was very upset by the stickers and had called police.

MacLennan said union members handed out large numbers of stickers to MacKay’s constituents so it’s not clear who put the stickers on the window and wall of the minister’s constituency office. But he said because the stickers were issued by UNDE, the union is planning to hire someone to remove the items.

MacKay’s office also issued a statement accusing UNDE of doing a disservice to its members by misrepresenting the facts on the government’s decision to cut jobs. MacKay’s statement noted that the civilian workforce at DND has grown by 5,000 people and that the federal government had increased the number of jobs in the Atlantic region. MacKay also highlighted in his statement that the decision to build new ships at the Halifax shipyards would bring large numbers of jobs to Nova Scotia.

MacLennan, however, questioned how that would help the more than 1,500 DND civilian workers who are losing their jobs.

Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: DAVID PUGLIESE