Canadian Government employees swear loyalty to Harper

[FluffyMcDeath]

Their job is on the line.

"I am aware that during this time of significant transition, the concept of loyalty can have a very particular meaning. However, as employees of the public sector, our duty is to support the elected government," employees were told.

 

[Robert]

I don't see anything in the link saying they have to swear loyalty, only that they can't criticise (bad enough, of course, but not quite the same thing).

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

I don't see anything in the link saying they have to swear loyalty,

It's not stated but it's a straightforward inference.

the "duty of loyalty" to Parks Canada is spelled out in that code of ethics.

"The duty of loyalty includes the duty to refrain from public criticism of the Government of Canada when speaking as an employee of the agency. Breaching the duty of loyalty may lead to disciplinary action," it states.

And when an organization has a code of ethics under which it can take punitive action for violations then the code of ethics must be acknowledged by each employee which usually takes the form of some sort of signed (even if only electronically signed) attestation by the employee that they have read, understood and agree to be bound by the code of ethics.

That basically means that you must agree to be loyal to the government as a condition of employment and you swear that you agree to be bound by that loyalty - i.e. it's a loyalty pledge. And currently the Government of Canada is very much a Harper government.

 

[Robert]

Fair enough. I was taking "Swearing loyalty" literally but I see what you mean.

 

[Glaucus]

Ya, but all that needs to be tested in court. Also, I wasn't quite sure if that meant people couldn't criticize while in their active government role or if that included criticisms on their own time. If the latter, then a wrongful dismissal case is likely to be just around the corner. And it could even be a good trap for opposition parties, find someone who wants to quit anyway, have them openly criticize before an election, get fired and then base a few campaign ads on that. This can be a double edged sword.
Btw, I would love to see what internal policies the Concervative party has regarding "loyalty". I'm pretty sure I know the answer to that.