Some Hill staffers forgoing raises, refuse to sign gag order

Some Hill political staffers are forgoing salary raises in order to not sign a mandatory lifetime loyalty and confidentiality agreement currently causing alarm bells to go off in some MPs’ offices.

The secretive Commons Board of Internal Economy (BOIE), an all-party board which oversees House administration, sent a memo to all MPs’ offices explaining there would be a change to standardized confidentiality agreements in March, which would take effect starting April 1.

Political parties should be legally responsible for staffers, says Kingsley

Federal political parties should have a legal responsibility when it comes to the people they hire, including contractors, and how they are trained, says Canada’s former chief electoral officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley.

“You simply cannot say, ‘Well it’s this company that broke the rules and not us,’ when in fact it has an impact on the election. I’ve always thought there should be some form of responsibility attached to the party,” said Mr. Kingsley in an interview with The Hill Times. “If there’s a clear indication that they should have known better, if there’s a clear indication that they did not provide any kind of guidance, that type of thing, then there should be responsibility attached to the political party and that might take legal measures.”