Tuesday, April 04, 2006

NEWS FLASH! CPC breaking campaign promises!


How thoroughly and utterly predictable:

Tories backing away from key plank in proposed accountability act

OTTAWA (CP) - The ethics package that was a centrepiece of the Conservatives' successful election bid has been stripped of one of its fundamental elements, The Canadian Press has learned.

The proposed Federal Accountability Act will not include a sweeping set of reforms to Access to Information laws as promised in the Tory platform.

Those reforms would have given Canadians an unprecedented glimpse into the secretive machinery of government by allowing fuller public access to federal documents.

The Tories promised they would implement a set of recommendations by Information Commissioner John Reid that would radically loosen access laws and shine light into some of the darkest corners of government.

They will instead chop most of the access provisions from the legislation and send Reid's recommendations to a parliamentary committee in a separate document.


I don't even have the energy to be appalled anymore.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...


I don't even have the energy to be appalled anymore


Why? Have you spent all your energy through the last twelve years?

{nik}

Mark Richard Francis said...

This fits in with Harper's actions to steeply control information. He doesn't want his ministers talking, and he wants their documents talking as little as possible as well.

We should keep our eyes peeled for evidence that Access to Info requests are getting harder to fullfill. I bet that further bureaucratic haze will descend on the process.

Aunty Bertha said...

We should keep our eyes peeled for evidence that Access to Info requests are getting harder to fullfill. I bet that further bureaucratic haze will descend on the process.

Maybe Steven is going to take a leaf out of Gordon Campbell's book here in BC. The people who made the most use of FOI during the NDP years have changed the rules and cut the budget to make it ridiculously difficult to gain access to information. Just ask David Schreck - http://www.strategicthoughts.com/record2006/foi17.html

CC said...

anonymous writes:

Why? Have you spent all your energy through the last twelve years?

Uh oh ... here comes the right-wing talking point: "But ... but ... the Liberals ..."

Anonymous said...

Liberal media, conservative media, whatever...

Stephen Harper clearly has something to hide.

Anonymous said...

cc said...here comes the right-wing talking point

Talking point it is all right, but a true one, isn't it?

{nik}