Increased Silence and Secrecy: Are we Really Prepared for This?

It would be difficult to pinpoint a single word to describe the Harper government, but for me one of the most important words is 'secrecy'.

They have held onto information with such an iron grip, that you can spot a Conservative at 100 yards, because of their glowing white knuckles. I don't think I need to tell you how important a free flow of information is to a healthy democracy.

So maybe a little chronology of how they have been able to completely alter the way a government accounts to the people. First off, remember that the Accountability Act was a sham.

Republican pollster Frank Luntz, advised the Civitas Society, the policy arm of the Harper government, that there were three things to focus on, that would lead to a majority: tax relief (courtesy of George Bush), accountability and hockey.

Because so long as they made those things the centre of their messaging, we would pay attention to little else. When I first heard that, I thought he had misread the Canadian people. Now I'm not so sure.

Shutting Down Our Access to Information. A Chronology

April 2006 - Time Magazine reports on Harper's secrecy: Controlling the Message "The capital's journalists, who view themselves as watchdogs against government abuse, expressed concerns about the Harper government."

Latraverse. "Canadians should be worried when they see the government trying to exert such an unprecedented level of control."

Peter Murdoch of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union says the new policy "smacks of totalitarianism."

Alasdair Roberts, a Syracuse University public-policy professor, asks, "How can the average Canadian make a judgment about whether their government is being well run if they don't have access to the information?"

October 2007 - In 2007, Tonda MacCharles in the Ottawa Bureau of the Toronto Star, unearthed secret plans for a special media centre, dubbed the "Shoe Store Project". At the time Harper's staff had been working quietly, to restore an old shoe store into a controlled environment for government messaging.

May 2008 - Bruce Campion-Smith writes a six part series on how tight the government's message control is. They also shut down an important database. I used that site all the time.

November 2009 - It was discovered that Harper now had his own team of taxpayer funded photographers travelling with him, to make sure that he was captured in the right light. The Globe asked: Is Stephen Harper going too far in trying to control his image?

November 2009 - We learn that this government is also completely controlling the messaging in Afghanistan. "Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office used a "6,000-mile screwdriver" to oversee the denial of reports of Afghan detainee abuse when the scandal first erupted in 2007, according to a former senior NATO public affairs official who was then based in Kabul. The former official, speaking on condition his name not be used, told the Toronto Star that Harper's office in Ottawa "scripted and fed" the precise wording NATO officials in Kabul used to repudiate allegations of abuse "at a time when it was privately and generally acknowledged in our office that the chances of good treatment at the hands of Afghan security forces were almost zero."It was highly unusual." And he claimed not to know?

December 2009 - Bruce Cheadle of the Canadian Press, revealed that "Taxpayers are being asked to pay an extra $1.7-million this fiscal year to help bolster Stephen Harper's communications support services – just as the Prime Minister's Office begins distributing government videos of Harper to the news media." The Harper government was now writing their own copy, taking their own photos, and creating their own video, for news stories.

May 2010 - Youths who participated in a question-and-answer session with Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Monday say their questions were edited by the Prime Minister’s Office. Other youths had earlier explained that the questions were selected by Vision Internationale, a non-profit Christian group, and then edited by Harper’s office.

When Anna Fricker, a young ambassador for the group, discovered that her question on maternal health had been edited, she spoke out: Fricker was then interrupted by an organizer who would not identify herself except to say, "I’m supposed to be handling the media." "I would appreciate if you could just work with us so that we can keep this consistent message," she said. "I’m just supposed to keep this under control." (Chronicle Herald, May 18, 2010)

And So it Continues

The Canadian Association of Journalists in an open letter to Canadian journalists, sounded the alarm over the secrecy and silence.

Under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the flow of information out of Ottawa has slowed to a trickle. Cabinet ministers and civil servants are muzzled. Access to Information requests are stalled and stymied by political interference. Genuine transparency is replaced by slick propaganda and spin designed to manipulate public opinion. The result is a citizenry with limited insight into the workings of their government and a diminished ability to hold it accountable. As journalists, we fear this will mean more government waste, more misuse of taxpayer dollars, more scandals Canadians won’t know about until it’s too late.

Harper is now signalling that he will raise the price of access to information requests from $5.00 to $25.00, making it even more difficult to learn what is happening behind closed doors.

The RCMP is also investigating a 'Purple File', used to tuck away requests that could prove embarrassing to Harper and his disciples.

And on the campaign trail he continues to limit questions and forces the media to stand well back of him. Not off to a good start.

My fear, and no doubt the fear of others, is that if we give this government another mandate, we will be giving them permission to operate in secrecy. Stephen Harper will continue to shut out the press, and thereby the Canadian people, and his propaganda team will only put larger bolts on the door.

The transformation to the 'Harper Government', a government of one, that does as it pleases, will be complete.

Are we really prepared for this?

Sorry David Akin But Again You are Dead Wrong

I am so tired of our media trying to spin stories, that part of my mission to work with others to take this country back, is to call out some of these so-called journalists who say really stupid things.

And no that doesn't mean that I expect them to be anti-rightwing or pro-leftwing, but I do expect them to be honest. This country is in serious trouble with a government that acts in almost total secrecy, and a media that helps to keep their secrets. Jack Layton recently referred to it as an attempt to build walls around the truth.

Earlier this month Gloria Galloway wrote an in depth piece on the struggles that legitimate journalists have in obtaining information from this government. And she states.

In 2006 and early 2007, reporters in Ottawa noticed that documents requested through federal Access to information and Privacy (ATIP) laws were taking longer and longer to arrive. Information officers in various government departments privately blamed a new requirement, imposed by the Harper government, that requests be vetted by the Privy Council, the departmental arm of the Prime Minister's Office.

Access to information for the media has become a huge problem, and government control of information, has reached epidemic proportions. This is very serious and needs immediate attention.

The tipping point may have been the discovery that a staffer of then Public Works minister Christian Paradis, ordered the unrelease of a sensitive document, eventually only allowing 30 pages of the 137 pages to be handed over.

Dimitri Soudas went into typical damage control, threatening to fire anyone who pulled that stunt again, but everyone knows that is was business as usual for this government.

According to the Hill Times: Cabinet ministers' offices regularly interfere in ATI requests, says Tory staffer.

Cabinet ministers' offices had been under orders to pressure bureaucrats to pare down the amount of information released under the Access to Information Act up until The Canadian Press recently broke the story on how one political staffer killed the release of a document, forcing the Prime Minister's Office to get involved and to do some damage control, says one Conservative staffer.

"Since we formed government, the PMO has been pressuring us to take a hard line on ATIP requests," the staffer, who did not want to be identified, told The Hill Times.

This is not only completely unethical but should be totally unacceptable in a democratic country.

Amir Attaran, a law professor at the University of Ottawa and a frequent user of access system, is critical of the Information Commissioner's Office and said the apparent interference by Mr. Togneri is more than shocking. "He clearly counselled the concealment of the records, that's a no-brainer, and it's a question of what defence he has," Prof. Attaran said.

Dean Beeby, the CP reporter who broke the story on how his access request was handled by Minister Paradis' office, is a veteran ATI user who has been using the system since it came into force in 1983. He said the ATI system has "pretty much ground to a halt" and that he's "never seen the system so broken."

Enter David Akin, Stephen Harper's little puppet on the Hill.

Canwest News Service Hill reporter David Akin said he was unsurprised by the Paradis incident, adding that it's par for the course for both this Conservative government and previous Liberal governments. "It's not that the Conservatives are particularly bad at this compared to any other group. Governments are bad, I can't stress that enough" .....

Now remember David Akin was also the pseudo-journalist who tried to defend being held hostage on a plane, by suggesting that he has to write for 'conservative' Canadians too. I can't imagine 1/3 of Canadians supporting kidnapping, but who am I to judge.

Akin also recently got into a flap over a story he wrote about Harper's interview with Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe, because the headline (which he quickly stated was not his doing) called it shameless exploitation. After his hissy fit, the headline was changed to something like "And God sent down his second son, Stephen Harper ... )

Smarten up! This is no longer good enough. You can't justify this government's abhorrent behaviour by comparing it to governments past. I was one of seven children, and if we tried that nonsense with my mother, she'd say "if they jumped off a bridge would you do it too?" It is WRONG and I can't stress that enough!

Everyone, with the exception of Akin and 90% of what passes for Canadian media these days, recognize the danger signs. Clues Mr. Akin .... 2006 and 2007 reporters in Ottawa noticed that documents requested through federal Access to information and Privacy (ATIP) laws were taking longer and longer to arrive ... and ..... never seen the system so broken.

It might be Dimitri's job to run interference for the PMO, but it's not yours. David Akin - consider yourself prorogued.

Harper Government's Control of Information Has Reached Epidemic Proportions

Despite promises of accountability, the Harper government has become the most secretive in this nation's history. It is not just access to unredacted memos regarding the Afghan Detainee issue, but on everything.

How they are spending our money should be of grave concern to Canadians, considering Jim Flaherty's history with the Ontario legislature. He couldn't be trusted then and he can't be trusted now.

Gloria Galloway has written a piece for the Globe discussing the difficulty the media has been having, in prying information from Harper's tightly clenched fist.

Pattern of delay: Ottawa's information denial : The Access to Information Act requires Ottawa to respond to requests in 30 days - unless that query is about how the federal government follows its own rules, in which case the response can take two-and-a-half years.

This only confirms what we already knew. This governemnt has far too many secrets.