Jacques Poitras· CBC News· Posted: Aug 24, 2020 6:00 AM AT



Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs speaks with reporters during a stop at the Fredericton Airport. (Jonathan Collicott/CBC)

In late October 2018, Blaine Higgs was on the cusp of power, and he was ticked off.

Days before a confidence vote that would topple the Liberal government of Brian Gallant, a debate erupted in the legislature about the legal requirement that one paramedic on every ambulance crew be bilingual.

Higgs, impatient to address a staffing shortage at Ambulance New Brunswick, was insisting the province fix that problem first and deal with the right to bilingual service later.

He grew testy when reporters asked what he'd do if, as premier, he was told that he couldn't bypass the Constitution and a binding court order on the issue.


"I'm not going to go down a hypothetical trail," he said. "It seems like repeatedly when I give an opinion, I get burned on that, so I'm not going to give an opinion."


Higgs, now making his way around the province as he campaigns for re-election Sept. 14, sometimes gets things wrong when he pushes back against legal constraints. (Jonathan Collicott/CBC)

A few days later the Progressive Conservative leader told reporters he had obtained a legal interpretation backing his view that a fix could be "prioritized" ahead of bilingualism.

"We can provide that so you can read it," he said, though he never did.

A similar scene played out Monday on the first day of the provincial election campaign.

Higgs said the government would have the power, under its pandemic emergency order, to halt the campaign if there were a major COVID-19 outbreak.

That contradicted chief electoral officer Kim Poffenroth, who said through a spokesperson she "is not sure under what authority the premier would be able to suspend an election."


Two days later the PC campaign said Higgs had received legal advice backing his view, but it was confidential.

'Little value in us arguing'

Higgs said Monday he "would guess" he had the power under the province's pandemic state of emergency but "did not go asking" for confirmation before calling the election.

And in an echo of his 2018 exasperation when facing questions on bilingual paramedics, he told reporters there was no point in discussing it any further.

"We can kind of hypothesize on all kinds of things happening. … I see little value in us arguing about how we protect individuals if we need to."

The two episodes are notable because they're examples of a premier with a reputation for strong management skills and attention to detail making confusing comments about legal and constitutional realities.

There are many other examples of the PC leader saying things that are wrong, or at odds with expert interpretation.

It never seems deliberate and often seems more like a political leader trying to wish certain facts into existence — or impatient with legalities that slow him down.

"No one is right all of the time, despite best efforts," campaign spokesperson Nicolle Carlin responded in an email. "The premier would never intentionally mislead the public."

Gallant's right to try to govern

The night of the 2018 election, when Higgs's PCs won 22 seats compared to 21 for the Liberals, he declared, "The one who has the most numbers wins."

That wasn't correct: under parliamentary convention, Liberal premier Brian Gallant had the right to recall the legislature and try to hold power by winning support from other parties.

After Gallant tried and failed and Higgs got the chance to become premier, he said he had been "impatient" with parliamentary tradition but finally accepted its legitimacy.

"The system worked," he said.


Pointing out the PCs did win more seats, Carlin said: "To be fair, the premier did get advice from a constitutional expert on election night.

"The premier assumed Brian Gallant would do the honourable thing and concede. He was surprised when that didn't happen but you are right, there was a mechanism that allowed the Liberals to try and hold on to power."

Bilingual requirements for paramedics

Once he was premier, Higgs continued to insist there was a way to fill those vacant paramedic positions by weakening bilingualism requirements. His government announced such a plan in December 2018.

He was leaning on a labour board ruling by arbitrator John McEvoy that suggested waiving the requirement in some regions.

He brushed off the existence of a binding consent order the province had agreed to in 2017, which made clear the legal obligation existed everywhere.

Eventually the government had to comply with that consent order and devised a system of "floater" positions to address the gaps while remaining within the law.

And in a judicial review hearing on the McEvoy ruling, government lawyers argued it was unconstitutional and should be struck down. The judge agreed.

In January of this year, Higgs mused about reducing the number of MLAs in the legislature to allow for faster decision-making.

When he was pressed on the idea, he said the independent electoral boundaries commission would determine the number the next time it revised riding boundaries.

In fact, the number of ridings, 49 at the moment, is set in the Electoral Boundaries and Representation Act, so it would be up to the Higgs government to change it, not the commission.

Emissions in China

Around the same time, Higgs said the proposed Maritime Iron processing plant in Belledune could go ahead because of expected greenhouse gas reductions in China.

The Belledune plan would have exceeded New Brunswick's emissions reduction targets, but Higgs accepted the company's argument that a plant here would displace iron processing in China, reducing global emissions overall.


He stated, wrongly, that the federal government had already given a liquefied natural gas plant in British Columbia an exemption from emissions caps based on overseas reductions.

He later conceded such exemptions aren't possible without an international treaty, which doesn't yet exist.

Problem-solvers

Higgs is a mechanical engineer, and Mohamed Elmasry, professor emeritus of engineering at the University of Waterloo, says people in the profession are well suited to manage challenges like COVID-19.

"You identify the problem exactly, you have to articulate it … and then you have to do your homework, come up with the constraints, how to solve it, the time to solve it, and how much it takes to solve it. Politics as we know it doesn't play into your role."

But he says a "disadvantage" of being an engineer can be an unfamiliarity with legal, constitutional and political nuances.


Mohamed Elmasry, professor emeritus of engineering at the University of Waterloo, says people in the profession of mechanical engineering like Higgs are well suited to manage challenges like COVID-19. (Jacques Poitras/Zoom)

"He should know the limits and also the law," Elmasry says. "This is part of the constraints he has to work with."

Even if it can delay a decision, Higgs has to consult and listen to legal advice, Elmasry added, "in order to simplify things for him, in order for him to understand the legal constraints he has to work within. But he can overcome that."

In her email, Carlin said Higgs has done that.

"It speaks to his character that he  is willing to admit when he is wrong and change course when doing so is in the best interest of New Brunswick."

One more wrinkle

There's one more wrinkle to Higgs's claim this week about the legal power to stop an election.
Carlin said Wednesday a legal opinion Higgs received confirmed "there is the ability via the Emergency Measures Act" to cancel it. She would not say who exactly would have that ability.

It's true that act gives the government sweeping powers through the COVID-19 emergency order.But Public Safety Minister Carl Urquhart must renew and sign the order every two weeks — and Higgs also said on Monday ministers "step down" during an election campaign.

If that were correct, there would be no public safety minister when the current order expires on Aug. 31, and therefore no emergency powers to respond to an outbreak.

Fortunately for Higgs, ministers do in fact stay in their positions during a campaign.



 



50 Comments 

David Amos  
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Surprise Surprise Surprise




David Amos 
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Methinks Mohamed Elmasry may agree that the CBC, the RCMP, Higgy and his minions have a least a few more weeks to get honest and make amends about their harassment of me N'esy Pas?

















DJ Redfern
I await Jacque's opinion piece on Kevin Vickers weaknesses......  


David Amos 
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Reply to @DJ Redfern: Dream on




























Johnny Almar
Liberals have the CBC on their side again. Analysis = Free negative campaign ads.  


David Amos 
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Reply to @Johnny Almar: Methinks thats par for the course N'esy Pas?




























Douglas James
A dictator in the making. 


David Amos 
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Reply to @Douglas James: Methinks many would agree that Higgy's Police State has existed for quite some time already N'esy Pas?

Contact Information

Mohamed Elmasry
Born	December 24, 1943 (age 76) Cairo, Egypt
Nationality	Canadian
Education	Cairo University University of Ottawa
Occupation	professor, religious leader

Mohamed Elmasry (Arabic: محمد المصري‎) (born December 24, 1943) is a Canadian engineering professor, imam, and has been a leader in the Canadian Muslim community.^[1] He was born in Cairo, Egypt and received his Bachelor of Science in 1965 from Cairo University. He continued his studies in Canada earning masters and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Ottawa in 1970 and 1974. He has worked in the area of digital integrated microchip design for over four decades.

From 1965 to 1968, Elmasry worked for Cairo University and from 1972 to 1974 for Bell-Northern Research in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Since 1974, he has been with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo in Ontario where he is a founding Director of the VLSI (Microchip) Research Group.

As a spokesperson for Muslim causes through the Canadian Islamic Congress, he has been a regular contributor to The Globe and Mail. His remarks, especially those concerning the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, have drawn significant attention in the Canadian media. He has accused some of his opponents of being anti-Islam.

Elmasry has authored and co-authored more than 500 research papers and 16 books on integrated circuit design and design automation, as well as having several patents to his credit. He has edited the following books for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers: Digital MOS Integrated Circuits (1981); Digital VLSI Systems (1985), Digital MOS Integrated Circuits II (1991) and Analysis and Design of BiCMOS Integrated Circuits (1993)


----------Original message ----------
From: "McKee, Robert (LEG)"<Robert.McKee@gnb.ca>
Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2020 12:17:27 +0000
Subject: Automatic reply: Methinks Mohamed Elmasry may agree that the
CBC, the RCMP, Higgy and his minions have a least a few more weeks to
get honest and make amends about their harassment of me N'esy Pas?
To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>

In the spirit of fair elcetions, MLAs do not perform work on behalf of
constituents during the election period. We would be happy to address
your concerns following the election. Thank you.

Dans l'esprit d'élections libres et justes, les députés ne font de
travail pour les résidents en tant que député durant la période
d'élections. Nous seront heureux de vous assister après les élections.
Merci.




----------Original message ----------
From: "Anderson-Mason, Andrea Hon. (JAG/JPG)"<Andrea.AndersonMason@gnb.ca>
Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2020 12:17:27 +0000
Subject: Automatic reply: Methinks Mohamed Elmasry may agree that the
CBC, the RCMP, Higgy and his minions have a least a few more weeks to
get honest and make amends about their harassment of me N'esy Pas?
To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>

Thank you for your email. Your thoughts, comments and input are
greatly valued.  You can be assured that all emails and letters are
carefully read, reviewed and taken into consideration.
Thank you.


Merci pour votre courriel. Nous vous sommes très reconnaissants de
nous avoir fait part de vos idées, commentaires et observations. Nous
tenons à vous assurer que nous lisons attentivement et prenons en
considération tous les courriels et lettres que nous recevons.
Merci.

Andrea Anderson-Mason, Q.C. / c.r.


​​​

----------Original message ----------
From: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2020 09:17:21 -0300
Subject: Methinks Mohamed Elmasry may agree that the CBC, the RCMP,
Higgy and his minions have a least a few more weeks to get honest and
make amends about their harassment of me N'esy Pas?
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David Raymond Amos‏ @DavidRayAmos
Replying to @alllibertynews and 49 others
Methinks Mohamed Elmasry may agree that the CBC, the RCMP, Higgy and
his minions have a least a few more weeks to get honest and make
amends about their harassment of me N'esy Pas?

https://davidraymondamos3.blogspot.com/2020/08/higgs-often-impatient-with-legal.html

 #nbpoli #cdnpoli

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/blaine-higgs-impatient-legal-constitutional-constraints-1.5695749


Higgs often impatient with legal, constitutional constraints
As premier, PC leader sometimes misstates or confuses legal realities

Jacques Poitras · CBC News · Posted: Aug 24, 2020 6:00 AM AT





50 Comments


David Amos
Content disabled
Surprise Surprise Surprise




David Amos
Content disabled
Methinks Mohamed Elmasry may agree that the CBC, the RCMP, Higgy and
his minions have a least a few more weeks to get honest and make
amends about their harassment of me N'esy Pas?







DJ Redfern
I await Jacque's opinion piece on Kevin Vickers weaknesses......

David Amos
Content disabled
Reply to @DJ Redfern: Dream on









Johnny Almar
Liberals have the CBC on their side again. Analysis = Free negative
campaign ads.

David Amos
Content disabled
Reply to @Johnny Almar: Methinks thats par for the course N'esy Pas?







Douglas James
A dictator in the making.

David Amos
Content disabled
Reply to @Douglas James: Methinks many would agree that Higgy's Police
State has existed for quite some time already N'esy Pas?