I couldn't agree with you more. Through the last little while, even just currently, we've seen members of Parliament having to step down from their roles, with many of those types of similar words being used.
You've been through a lot as well. When you were Clerk of the Privy Council, you were immediately accused of being partisan, although you've served for two different parties in your role. We've seen Morris Rosenberg also called a “Liberal crony”. The Leader of the Opposition also flippantly described the Right Honourable David Johnston as the PM's “ski buddy” and “neighbour”.
A lot of these types of partisan attacks against credible individuals and the smear attacks on long-serving public servants.... It seems like there's no bar anymore as to where people will stop if it politically serves their purpose, even smearing the media, as we're seeing now. It hasn't been helpful that Twitter has created its own policies that allow people to come up with other conspiracy theories to attack the media.
Where does that leave us now? How would you advise that we can move away from that and really make sure our independent journalists are trusted, our public servants are respected and our institutions are upheld?