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“We will stand up for its members who face the prospect of being disciplined for exercising their democratic rights as citizens. The Supreme Court of Canada has confirmed that public service workers, like all Canadian citizens, benefit from freedom of expression,” said PIPSC president Debi Daviau.

Turner has been a public servant for 19 years and is nearing retirement. He most recently was assigned to co-ordinate a project to map priority areas for migratory birds.

Can’t we make jokes or say anything? Are we all muzzled? This is the politics of fear. I am an activist and singer but mostly I am a citizen and I care about democracy and freedom of speech

But he has also been a stalwart of the local folk music scene since 1994 when he joined Writers’ Bloc, Ottawa’s songwriters collective. He has several CDs, plays regularly across the province and is best known for the song Circle of Song, which will be included in a new anthology of Canadian folk songs. His biography makes no mention of being a public servant.

For Ottawa’s folk musicians, Turner’s situation is a fight for freedom of speech that has become tangled in the balance between political rights of public servants and their duty of loyalty to the government.

“Can’t we make jokes or say anything? Are we all muzzled? This is the politics of fear. I am an activist and singer but mostly I am a citizen and I care about democracy and freedom of speech,” said Diane McIntyre, who sang one of the verses in the video.

It’s political and I can see why someone is upset with it, but that’s what protest songs are all about

The song, with its chorus “Harperman, it’s time for you to go,” was recorded in a Westboro hall. The chorus is a call to dump Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, which even some public servants felt went too far.