The Thin Skin of Darin King

Cabinet minister Darin King has a hard time dealing with criticism.  Time and again, he has responded to dissent against his authority with suspensions, censorship, funding cuts and other abuses of power.  I'm not sure if this is a misguided PR strategy, an authoritarian ideology, a Napoleon complex or an just an over-inflated ego at work, but his behaviour is an affront to democratic society and he needs to be called out for it.

In that spirit, here are some examples of Darin King abusing power or just generally acting like a dick.

• When he was director of the Eastern School District, King suspended two teachers for insubordination because they complained about work stress at a teacher's forum.


• As Fisheries Minister, King cut $1.3 million in research funding from the FFAW because of their criticism of the provincial government.


• King used non-political staff to write a blatantly partisan attack under official government letterhead titled "Michael Says No to Thousands of Jobs".


• King deleted a Facebook discussion that included informed and legitimate criticism of government budget cuts, instead of responding to critics.


• King continues to insist that "the justice system will be as strong going forward as it has been" despite large job cuts, and to complain that critics are spreading "totally false information" when his own information keeps changing from day to day. 


• Today a Legal Aid lawyer was suspended and required to write an apology for speaking to the media about budget cutbacks.  


• Update: Since this post went up Darin King staged a completely unwarranted attack on Gerry Rogers in the House of Assembly, and insisted that she apologize for comments that she did not read or write made in a Facebook group that she did not join. When Rogers refused, Speaker Ross Wiseman (a member of the PC caucus) had her escorted from the House.

This is just what I could think of off the top of my head; if you think of any other good examples leave a link in the comments and I'll add it to the list.

**************************** Update *******************************

It seems that the Justice Minister is giving in to pressure and will reassess the recent justice cuts.

An informative column outlining the state of the justice system and the effect the cuts would have.