Canada Fires the Messengers

Canada's Liberal government in British Columbia has fired its entire communications division - 300 unionized civil servants - and replaced them with 180 non-union political appointees in order to ensure that government information providers are "committed to the goals of the Liberal administration." Union president George Heyman says Premier Gordon Campbell is "using reorganization as an excuse to lay off workers and replace them with political hacks. If the premier wants partisan spin doctors instead of communications professionals, then the Liberal Party of B.C. should foot the bill, not taxpayers."