An Ottawa lawyer with the Department of Finance has become the first federal employee to delete social media posts in response to a new Treasury Board directive that bans vulgar and partisan content online.Timothy Huyer, listed as an “expert advisor” in the department’s legal services branch, routinely posted crude and politically charged messages on Twitter during the workday, often targeting Conservative politicians and using profanity. In one now-deleted tweet, Huyer wrote: “The nice thing about being in government is being able to introduce laws that allow you to f—k up without people being able to sue you for it.”Following questions from Blacklock’s Reporter about whether the tweets complied with Treasury Board rules, Huyer locked his account. Neither the finance department nor Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne offered comment..Huyer’s Twitter feed included a string of vulgar posts and partisan attacks. He once wrote, “One of the privileges of being a free citizen is the right to tell someone in the public square to f—k off,” and joked that he’d be fired as a reporter for yelling “What the f—k you just say?” during a press conference. Another post criticized public sector wage legislation, asking, “Why the f—k should public sector workers have their pay imposed by legislation?”The lawyer also mocked Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, saying his private sector experience was “very thin,” and claimed Poilievre’s political style was being “celebrated rather than shunned.” In a separate post, Huyer criticized Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, asking, “How the f—k can she be premier of a province” and challenge Supreme Court rulings.On July 16, Huyer retweeted a Liberal organizer’s claim that Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner was fueling vaccine hesitancy, and praised a column that criticized Conservatives for questioning Prime Minister Mark Carney’s stock holdings..A June 4 policy from the Treasury Board titled Guidance For Public Servants On Their Personal Use Of Social Media cautioned public servants — particularly managers and legal professionals — that their online activity could undermine the non-partisan nature of the federal workforce.“Posts from senior leaders and authority figures should be held to a very high standard,” the guidance stated. It warned that even anonymous or personal accounts could reflect poorly on the government and suggested employees should avoid commentary that could lead a reasonable person to question their impartiality.“We should be careful when publicly critiquing, positively or negatively, the government of the day or any political party’s policies or positions,” the document said.
