Tories flip-flop on release of ministerial agendas
Updated Sat. May. 6 2006 8:28 AM ET
Canadian Press
OTTAWA -- The Conservative government is moving to ban the release of prime ministerial agendas, a surprising change of heart after fighting the Liberals for the documents for years.
Government lawyers told Information Commissioner John Reid's office Friday that they intended to proceed with a Federal Court case over the prime minister's agendas, as well as those of other cabinet ministers.
"The new government has confirmed their instructions and they're moving ahead," said Daniel Brunet, a lawyer with the commissioner's office.
The case was born in 1999, when then Reform Party researcher Laurie Throness made six requests for then-prime minister Jean Chretien's agendas, detailing his daily appointments.
The Privy Council Office refused, Throness filed a complaint with the information commissioner, and the issue landed in Federal Court.
Now Throness is chief of staff to Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl, and in the strange position of having his name in court affidavits taken on behalf of the information commissioner.
Perhaps even stranger, the Harper government is effectively preventing Chretien's agendas from ever seeing the light of day.
Other requests for agendas of the transport and defence ministers, as well as RCMP records of the prime minister's agendas, have also landed in Federal Court.
The case has moved sluggishly, costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees on both sides, and will likely take years to resolve. Former prime minister Paul Martin's office last summer had also indicated its intention to fight the release.
A Justice Department spokesman said parliamentarians can have their say during upcoming debates on reforming access-to-information laws.
New Democrat MP Pat Martin, who follows access-to-information issues, called the government decision "a stunning about-face."
"The fundamental basis is you have a right to know what the government is doing with your money, and that includes the movements of the prime minister," Martin said.
Since Harper was sworn in earlier this year, he has moved to curtail the flow of information about his office.
Visits of international dignitaries to Ottawa are not publicized, Harper's travel plans are only made public shortly before he arrives in a location, and reporters have been barred from the area directly outside cabinet meetings.
"It was the culture of secrecy that was allowed to flourish under the Liberals, and that seems to be the single identifiable motif of the Harper era so far, and that's almost compulsive secrecy," said Martin.
The Conservative government has recently come up against the information commissioner over proposed reforms to access laws.
These tards can't stop making fools of themselves with their hypocrisy and flip flops...
