Michael Wernick, a member of Carleton’s Board of Governors (BoG), was appointed last week as the Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretariat to the Cabinet, making him Canada’s top public servant amid controversy over comments he made towards students last year.
“Michael Wernick is an outstanding public service leader. He has the depth of experience and the skills we need to move full speed ahead on the implementation and delivery of our government’s agenda,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a press release Jan. 20.
Wernick’s appointment does not come without controversy, as last year he made questionable comments about protestors in an email. Wernick referred to the March 2015 “Tuition Fees are too Damn High” rally—in which students picketed and led to the cancellation of the Board of Governors meeting—as “tactics of Brownshirts and Maoists.”
“Brownshirts” is a reference to the paramilitary wing of the Nazi party. “Maoists” is a reference to the Marxist-Leninist revolutionaries inspired by Chinese communist Mao Zedong.
The Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) wrote an open letter last year calling for Wernick to resign. Michael Bueckert, president of the GSA, was at the tuition protest last March.
“We just had an open letter . . . on our website online. The feedback we got at the time was a lot of support. A lot people found the comments ridiculous and unacceptable. We got a lot of support but from the administration we got silence,” said Bueckert. “I think we saw the board really rally behind Wernick and reflect the same sort of position as his.”
“It’s very worrying that someone who is very high up in the public service and the government has a view of peaceful protest as somehow synonymous with violence and terror,” Bueckert said.
The Clerk is responsible for providing professional, non-partisan advice and support to the Prime Minister on all policy and operational issues within the government.
Bueckert noted his concern over Wernick giving advice on bills that attempt to regulate free speech such as the Anti-Terrorism Act, better known as Bill C-51. The Liberal government has promised to reform the bill.
Wernick was contacted for comment on this story but did not return comment by publication. He had told The Charlatan he stands by his comments, stating, “I have said everything I need to say in the email, which has been posted . . . My position’s quite clear.”
Wernick was congratualted on his appointment at the open BoG meeting on Jan. 26.
Earlier this week NDP leader Thomas Mulcair demanded during question period that Trudeau ask Wernick to “apologize for these totally unacceptable remarks.” Trudeau did not respond to the comment, stating that he is happy to see Wernick assume the job.
