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“Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” - The story behind the
'Inquiry' investigation
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Tim Ralfe |
It was a twist of parliamentary irony that Canada’s Governor General
was honouring a journalistic enterprise that had prompted a motion
of censure in the House of Commons a few months earlier. The event
that prompted it was the lawful bugging of the NDP caucus meeting in
the main block of the Parliament Buildings.
Producer McGaw assigned
the job to reporter Tim Ralfe, known in Canada as the man who asked
Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in 1970 how far he would go to stop
the FLQ and was told “Just watch me.” In 1973, the law permitted
non-consensual bugging in some circumstances, so McGaw and Ralfe
decided to challenge it. It was typical of McGaw’s style of
activist, advocacy journalism in which events are devised and filmed
to make an editorial statement.
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David Lewis |
Ralfe’s skillful duct-tape placement of the bug under the NDP caucus
table an hour before leader David Lewis and his MP’s were to meet,
and the events that followed, formed a dramatic centerpiece for the
one hour CTV Inquiry “Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil”
investigating invasions of privacy in Canada. As the meeting began,
a sound recordist sitting in a non-descript van just outside the
main floor caucus room rolled tape and listened, but only to make
certain the transmission was satisfactory. He was sworn to secrecy.
However, suddenly, in the middle of a caucus discussion the
transmission stopped and the film team panicked.
 What happened? There were only two possibilities: either there was a
technical problem or, worse, the bug had been discovered, the RCMP
had been summoned and they were on the hunt for the buggers. CTV
President Murray Chercover hadn’t been advised of this scheme, nor
had he been asked for his approval, so McGaw confessed all, and the
response was predictable. Careers were at stake.
In Ottawa, an RCMP officer approached the van and stood looking at
it. The panic turned to terror. Then, as nonchalantly as he’d come,
the officer pulled out his book, wrote a parking ticket and placed
it on the windshield of the van. The crisis passed.
Suddenly, the sound recordist reported that the bug was working
again and it appeared from the conversation that no one was aware of
its existence. In fact, they were. The MP sitting beside Mr. Lewis
had been picking at something under the table, thinking it was a
stick of gum when the bug came unstuck in his hand. He looked at it
and wondered with his leader whether it might be a listening device
but thought no more about it and placed it on the table. That’s when
the transmission stopped. But later, he picked it up again, examined
it carefully and placed it back on the table. That’s when the
transmission resumed.
McGaw and Ralfe discussed strategy and decided to confess to Mr.
Lewis a soon as the meeting ended, hand him the tape recording and
assure him the recordist was the sole listener and was sworn to
secrecy. Later that day, the NDP leader introduced the motion of
censure in the House but generously consented to an interview with
Ralfe in which he condemned the action but applauded its editorial
objective. Both statements were included in the final edit.
A number of other invasions into the privacy of Canadians were
explored in the program, but none conveyed the message as powerfully
as the surreptitious bugging. Several months later, whether prompted
by the program or not, the law was changed to permit only consensual
bugging which permits recording devices to be used only if the user
is present during the recording or transmission. That law stands
today.
Back To 1973 Award
Winner
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