The opacity of Tory transparency
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Oh ****... Looks like my posts worked! :lol:
Mulcair vows to fight for transparency in face of government secrecy
Blasting cuts to research agencies and tighter controls on public files, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair vowed Sunday to lift the shroud of secrecy he believes has spread over Parliament Hill under the Harper government.
When it comes to keeping public information under wraps, the Conservative government is “unlike any we've ever seen” in Canada, Mr. Mulcair told the annual convention of the Canadian Association of Journalists.
“We politicians have a bad habit of claiming that every government we sit across from in Parliament is the worst in Canadian history... but you know what, it's finally turning out to be absolutely true,” Mr. Mulcair said.
By axing agencies such as the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy – organizations whose main role is to produce statistics – the government is going beyond simply restricting access to information, he said.
“The government wants to prevent inconvenient data from being generated in the first place,” he said.
Mr. Mulcair said his party will keep fighting for transparency, even if that means its own feet will be held to the fire.
Mr. Mulcair made the comments a day after the CAJ granted Stephen Harper's government this year's Code of Silence Award, which recognizes Canada's most secretive government or publicly funded agency.
The Tories have put forward a three-year blueprint for open government, but critics – including the NDP – say it falls short of improving accountability.
The federal plan promises to modernize the Access to Information process by allowing online requests.
It would also create a virtual library of government documents, improve federal record-keeping, make more archival material accessible and build on efforts to release government data.
While the NDP stands behind some of those initiatives, Mr. Mulcair said the plan isn't enough to make up for the government's overall clampdown on communication.
“Neither New Democrats nor the needs of Canadians will be satisfied by a few online gimmicks,” he said. “Access to Information will not genuinely improve without heavy pressure.”
Treasury Board President Tony Clement, who oversees the open government plan, was not immediately available for comment.
Mulcair vows to fight for transparency in face of government secrecy - The Globe and Mail
Mulcair vows to fight for transparency in face of government secrecy
Blasting cuts to research agencies and tighter controls on public files, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair vowed Sunday to lift the shroud of secrecy he believes has spread over Parliament Hill under the Harper government.
When it comes to keeping public information under wraps, the Conservative government is “unlike any we've ever seen” in Canada, Mr. Mulcair told the annual convention of the Canadian Association of Journalists.
“We politicians have a bad habit of claiming that every government we sit across from in Parliament is the worst in Canadian history... but you know what, it's finally turning out to be absolutely true,” Mr. Mulcair said.
By axing agencies such as the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy – organizations whose main role is to produce statistics – the government is going beyond simply restricting access to information, he said.
“The government wants to prevent inconvenient data from being generated in the first place,” he said.
Mr. Mulcair said his party will keep fighting for transparency, even if that means its own feet will be held to the fire.
Mr. Mulcair made the comments a day after the CAJ granted Stephen Harper's government this year's Code of Silence Award, which recognizes Canada's most secretive government or publicly funded agency.
The Tories have put forward a three-year blueprint for open government, but critics – including the NDP – say it falls short of improving accountability.
The federal plan promises to modernize the Access to Information process by allowing online requests.
It would also create a virtual library of government documents, improve federal record-keeping, make more archival material accessible and build on efforts to release government data.
While the NDP stands behind some of those initiatives, Mr. Mulcair said the plan isn't enough to make up for the government's overall clampdown on communication.
“Neither New Democrats nor the needs of Canadians will be satisfied by a few online gimmicks,” he said. “Access to Information will not genuinely improve without heavy pressure.”
Treasury Board President Tony Clement, who oversees the open government plan, was not immediately available for comment.
Mulcair vows to fight for transparency in face of government secrecy - The Globe and Mail
So,sleepy,you think everybody should just shut up and bend over,like you with a hand on each cheek ? Well pally,I can still voice my opinoin,harper is a lying sack of **** and is driving this country into the ground.His government is as transparent as a sheet of lead,and anybody that backs him hasn't the brains of a nit.
The right colour for the NDP
Drink up boys............:lol:
I'll be drinking as I hold his feet to the fire just like I have for Heirper.
Yes,and clements boss is ? I doubt that the minions are allowed to publicly voice any personal,unsanctioned ideas.
And just to be clear,I voted tory for a lot of years,I don't have a problem with any PARTY,it's harper and his minions,and the slimy american way they try to do things that I take issue with.
And just to be clear,I voted tory for a lot of years,I don't have a problem with any PARTY,it's harper and his minions,and the slimy american way they try to do things that I take issue with.
Touring the Vimy Ridge battlefield in France one day, Stephen Harper went down into one of the First World War trenches that have been preserved to give visitors a sense of what it was like there in 1917. Coming out later, the prime minister glanced at two TV photographers with their cameras pointing at him and quipped, “In those days, the enemy had guns.”
Sometimes Harper’s disdain for the Ottawa-based media — which he saw as part of the eastern establishment that had at one time helped solidify a Liberal stranglehold on Canadian politics — seemed half-serious, somewhat in the vein of the partisan posturing on display daily in the House of Commons. But for the most part, it was clear Harper saw the national reporting corps as self-important upstarts who amounted to little more than an obstacle to the Conservatives’ all-encompassing effort to shape and frame public attitudes toward their government.
Call it government by photo op. More than any previous ruling party on the federal scene, the Harper team elevated message delivery and image creation to priority status.
Once Harper was in power, his handlers wasted little time changing the way things were done when it came to the media. One of the highlights of the average week on Parliament Hill in previous years had been the Tuesday morning cabinet meetings held on the second floor of the Centre Block, just down the hall from the prime minister’s office. Reporters gathered in the hallway adjacent to the cabinet room before noon every Tuesday when Parliament was sitting and waited for ministers to wrap up their meeting.
But the whole business flew in the face of the controlled messaging strategy developed by Harper. Information on when the cabinet was meeting was no longer made public, and Commons security guards were ordered to keep reporters from hanging around near the cabinet room. This pattern held true, generally speaking, for all interactions between the Conservatives and reporters. The informal, movable scrums that were a part of life at provincial legislatures and, previously, at Parliament Hill became the exception with the Harper Conservatives.
more
‘Government by photo op’: How Stephen Harper froze out Ottawa’s press corps | Toronto Star
Sometimes Harper’s disdain for the Ottawa-based media — which he saw as part of the eastern establishment that had at one time helped solidify a Liberal stranglehold on Canadian politics — seemed half-serious, somewhat in the vein of the partisan posturing on display daily in the House of Commons. But for the most part, it was clear Harper saw the national reporting corps as self-important upstarts who amounted to little more than an obstacle to the Conservatives’ all-encompassing effort to shape and frame public attitudes toward their government.
Call it government by photo op. More than any previous ruling party on the federal scene, the Harper team elevated message delivery and image creation to priority status.
Once Harper was in power, his handlers wasted little time changing the way things were done when it came to the media. One of the highlights of the average week on Parliament Hill in previous years had been the Tuesday morning cabinet meetings held on the second floor of the Centre Block, just down the hall from the prime minister’s office. Reporters gathered in the hallway adjacent to the cabinet room before noon every Tuesday when Parliament was sitting and waited for ministers to wrap up their meeting.
But the whole business flew in the face of the controlled messaging strategy developed by Harper. Information on when the cabinet was meeting was no longer made public, and Commons security guards were ordered to keep reporters from hanging around near the cabinet room. This pattern held true, generally speaking, for all interactions between the Conservatives and reporters. The informal, movable scrums that were a part of life at provincial legislatures and, previously, at Parliament Hill became the exception with the Harper Conservatives.
more
‘Government by photo op’: How Stephen Harper froze out Ottawa’s press corps | Toronto Star
I don't believe a thing a Conservative says,and so should you not believe a thing a Conservative says,an intelligent person doesn't hear a word they say,Conservatives are so predictable.
i hope they take all their misfit followers with them in the next election.
i hope they take all their misfit followers with them in the next election.
And there is no way in the world that I would ever believe any thing that came out of the mouth of a Bloc Quebecer .Every one knows that those stinking rotten BQ's are lying cheating cheats .And don't get me started on those rotten liberals they are not the party of St. Laurent .. But boy that Thomas man he just makes my body quiver .