OTTAWA—The controversy over Justice Minister Peter MacKay’s Mother’s Day and Father’s Day messages sent department officials scrambling as they insisted that “everyone and his brother” had okayed their content, new documents reveal.

Internal justice department emails obtained by the Star show that MacKay’s messages — which came under fire for their different tone — were approved by high-level department employees, including officials in MacKay’s office.

And the documents show that both messages went through multiple reviews and edits — and still stirred controversy when they broke in the public eye.

MacKay’s Mother’s Day note praised mothers for balancing responsibilities at work and on the homefront.

“By the time many of you have arrived at the office, you’ve already changed diapers, packed lunches, run after school buses, dropped kids off at daycare, taken care of an aging loved one and maybe even thought about dinner,” MacKay said.

But the Father’s Day message that came a few weeks later was silent on the domestic duties of men. Instead, it said that fathers “were shaping the minds and futures of the next generation of leaders.”

“Our words, actions and examples greatly mould who they will become,” MacKay said.

When Canadian Press reporter Jennifer Ditchburn wrote about the messages on June 24 — including opposition criticism that they stereotyped parenting roles — the story was quickly circulated within the justice department as officials contemplated the backlash.

“It is all over the national news tonight. . . . I know it went through a lot of approvals,” Stefanie Arduini, a communications adviser in the corporate and internal communications division of Justice Canada, wrote in an email on June 24.

The next morning, two colleagues replied, according to emails obtained by the Star under access to information legislation.

“People far above our pay grade approved both messages, including his staff,” wrote Jennifer Reaney, a senior communications adviser with the department.

“Wow. Everyone and his brother approved the messages,” replied Dale Synnett-Caron, heads of the department’s corporate and internal communications.

Sections of the emails have been censored

Work on the Mother’s Day note began in early May when Synnett-Caron asked Arduini to craft a message.

“Hi Stef, Minister wants to send a message to staff for Mother’s Day. Would you please draft today? We have no information on what he would like to (sic) so we will give his office something to react to,” she said.

Within 30 minutes, Arduini responded with a rough text of the message that MacKay would later deliver.

“How’s this,” Arduini wrote. “Lots to say about supporting working moms and helping succeed but this is very light.”

The text went through a series of revisions but the substance of the note remained.

On May 7 — with Mother’s Day just days away — speech writer Marlene Spatuk sent the text to an undisclosed recipient, copied to senior department officials and communications staff, requesting approval.

“Here is the message as approved by the (deputy minister’s office) — please let us know what you think and we will arrange for translation and distribution,” she writes.

On May 9, an undisclosed sender in the minister’s office returned the message to Spatuk with a short note: “Find attached. Thanks.”

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The Father’s Day message went through a similar review process, rising from the bureaucracy to the deputy minister’s office and finally to MacKay’s office for approval.

It, too, went through a number of revisions. At one point, the phrase “fathers, who embracing their responsibilities as caregivers and role models to the next generation” was removed.

It was replaced with “fathers, shaping the minds and futures of the next generation of leaders.”