Yet (emphasis added) Rachel Wernick, the senior public servant who made the recommendation, told the finance committee last week that she did so after a conversation with Finance Department officials, including Michelle Kovacevic, a Finance Canada assistant deputy minister.
As a “gotcha” moment, this revelation falls rather flat. Why the word “yet” (implying dubious motives and behaviour), when the conversations cited by Rachael Wernick were with members of the public service. What kind of strange reasoning leads the authors of this article to rebut the Prime Minister’s assertion that the recommendation came from the public service by sharing the shocking revelation that the recommendation was made after conversations with members of the public service?
As for the Globe editorial, its criticisms are analogous to a situation in which a fellow complained every day about his neighbour’s barking dog, and then criticized this neighbour for spending all his time dealing with the barking dog and ignoring broader community issues.