|
||||||
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
January 17, 2008An Open Letter to Ralph GoodaleDear Mr. Goodale, On Thursday, January 10th, I attended a Liberal Laurier Club dinner in Saskatoon, at which you were the guest speaker. After your speech which dealt with political developments in the parliament in Ottawa, a number of people present raised the issue, in a critical fashion, of Joan Beatty’s appointment as a candidate in the riding of Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River, although David Orchard and John Dorion had already been campaigning for the nomination for several months. Defending the decision to appoint to the 70 or so party members in attendance, and being questioned by me on your treatment of David Orchard, you made the statement that you had told David Orchard clearly that an appointment was being considered, and you even claimed that the phone call in which you informed Mr. Orchard about a possible aboriginal female appointment, was made “with other people present on the call,” thereby claiming witnesses to your conversation with David Orchard. You implied that this information was given to Mr. Orchard after he had already started to campaign. Furthermore, when I stated that David Orchard was not consulted about the appointment, nor informed about it before he found out about it in the media, you responded that David had been contacted by the Green Light Committee, to let him know in advance that the appointment was going to take place. As David was never, to my knowledge, contacted by you to discuss the possibility of an appointment of an aboriginal woman after he started to campaign in the riding and was introduced by yourself as a candidate for the nomination, in Saskatoon on October 21 and in LaRonge on November 17, I’m asking you for the time and date of your phone call to David Orchard where you informed him about the plans. I also need to know from you who from the Green Light Committee has supposedly contacted David Orchard, by what means and when, to tell him that Joan Beatty would be appointed. For the record, David Orchard has never received a call, letter or e-mail from anyone from the Green Light Committee, on the topic of Ms. Beatty’s appointment. (As a matter of fact the co-chairs, Ms. Hipkin and Sheila Hart, have never talked or written to him about anything related to him running for parliament in a Saskatchewan riding, or about any other matter either.) As you have repeated in the media your claim that Mr. Orchard was “well aware” that a female aboriginal appointment in the person of Ms. Joan Beatty was being seriously considered, and that he was informed about it before the news of the looming appointment appeared in the media, you need to provide the proof for these claims. Sincerely Marjaleena Repo |
|
