Categories: Need to know

Tories smother release of documents

Secrecy case echoes sponsorship scandal of Liberal days

by macleans.ca on Monday, February 8, 2010 11:37am - 32 Comments

Back in 2004, the Gomery Commission, which investigated the so-called sponsorship scandal, found that the office of a Liberal public works minister, Alfonso Gagliano, behaved unethically in interfering with the release of documents. Now, Canadian Press reports that an aide to a Tory minister has similarly intervened to prevent the Access to Information system from working the way it’s supposed to. Sebastien Togneri, an official in the office of then-Public Works Minister Christian Paradis, blocked the release last year of the annual report of his department’s real estate portfolio—even though turning over the report to the CP news service was formally approved by the department’s information officials. Paradis was recently reassigned as natural resources minister, taking Togneri with him to the new portfolio.

Canadian Press

Tags: Canada

http://intensedebate.com/people/SeanStok Sean

That's not fair. This is *completely* different.

Evelyn

The taxpayers need to know the truth pleaseeeeeee

http://intensedebate.com/people/Thwim Thwim

I wonder how bad it is? I mean, it's a known tactic that Flaherty likes to sell off gov't assets to pretty up the financial picture of today without ever thinking of how much renting that space back will cost the gov't tomorrow.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Gaunilon Gaunilon

Speculate much?

http://intensedebate.com/people/sea_n_mountains sea_n_mountains

wouldn't need to speculate if they complied with the ATI law Gaunilon. just saying….

http://intensedebate.com/people/Gaunilon Gaunilon

If he broke the law, nail him. However, am I the only one who thinks that it's just a bit of a stretch to compare one CPC official blocking the release of a document to widespread Liberal misuse of taxpayer money for bribery?

http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

How fortunate, then, that that is not the comparison being made.

common man

Try rereading the first 2 sentences of the above article with an objective mind and you will see that Gaunilon is right.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

Tried it. No luck so far. Still something about how ministers' staff shouldn't intervene to block the release of documents.

common man

I`m confused. First you say no comparison is being made, then you seem to agree with Gaunilon by comparing the intervention of the Gagliano staff and the Paradis staff. Keep trying I guess.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

Gaunilon was comparing the Paradis staff thing to the Sponsorship Scandal. That was not the comparison in the two famous first sentences of the above article. Thank you for your interest.
common man

I guess if you can`t see that the first sentence talks about the Gomery Comm. findings and the second sentence is about an aide to Paradis, and that`s what is called a comparison, then I`ll just assume you are being obstinate.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

The problem is that that is not what is called a comparison.
common man

No, you`re the problem. I originally asked you to reread the article in an objective manner so you could see an example of Liberal media using a completely disproportionate comparison in an attempt to smear a gov`t ministry. You chose to leave your partisan hat on and that`s OK because that is who you are. Your most recent hair-splitting attempt involving your Aunt Edna and a large black Lab is embarrassing, especially to your Aunt Edna.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

It's not a smear to point out, as this squib does, that the last time a minister's staff tried to block the release of documents like this was in something as extreme as Sponsorship.

But apparently anyone who suspects the CPC of misgovernment, let alone fraudulent real estate dealings, can only be a Liberal partisan; the others, the good, docile, happy common men, are too busy obeying their masters to worry about stuff like not having the government speculate on real estate (if that's what this is about . . .).
http://intensedebate.com/people/janicemaerose janicemaerose

Haha. Gotta hand it to you Jack. You make a good point.
common man

Is that you Aunt Edna ?
Evelyn

Common Man: Liberal media you say, who is in the media more than the tories? and should be in this case as much as the liberal scandal was, fair is fair no matter how you look at it.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Thwim Thwim

You're assuming he's looking for fair.

http://intensedebate.com/people/RunningGag RunningGag

I think that the article only makes the connection because it needed to establish that the minister acted illegally.

"In that case, the senior public servant in charge of Access to Information, Anita Lloyd, decided the move was unethical and illegal."

Although, I think that governments that are trying to repress the public's access to information should be compared to each other. They're all bloody liers anyways.
Evelyn

It certainly seems to have a very bad stench to it, lets find out.

http://intensedebate.com/people/RunningGag RunningGag

"The full report showed, among other things, that Public Works' repair and maintenance costs for its building portfolio is much higher than in the private sector, as are vacancy rates.
The document showed that the average vacancy rate in Public Works-managed real estate was 5.1 per cent, far above its internal target of 3.5 per cent."

Whopty-freaking-do. Why would they even bother to censor this information. You know that its going to cause a stink if you do; just release it and ignore the thirty word article that will be buried on page E32 of practically none of the newspapers. Instead, you get a report that is featured in Mclean's about how there is a culture of repressing FOI requests on the basis of political spin.

Good job. So busy trying to control everything that you lose the point of being an elected representative. I hope your constituents are watching.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Nich Nich

Makes one wonder what lengths they would go to to hide the big stories.

I'd ask a Tory MP, but they are hard to find around Ottawa at the moment for some reason…

http://intensedebate.com/people/RunningGag RunningGag

No, I know how far they'd go: exactly as far as the LPC; as far as it takes.

I assume that I'm being lied to. It just annoys me when I hear about it. And, it annoys me even more when I'm being lied to about something as stupid as this.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Nich Nich

The blue and red euphemisms involving their relationship with the public are not flattering or even appropriate for most of the Interwebz; I'll give you that.

Steve M

“I’d ask a Tory MP, but they are hard to find around Ottawa at the moment for some reason…”

Yes, too bad there wasn’t someplace else you could find an MP besides in Ottawa, like maybe in their riding office?

http://intensedebate.com/people/Nich Nich

I refuse to connect the dots for you.

http://intensedebate.com/people/janicemaerose janicemaerose

lmao

Evelyn

Would a tory tell you the truth about it??????

Wayne Moaha

Another case of the liberal media twisting the facts to suit their agenda.

Evelyn

If that is the case "fess up" if they have nothing to hide, it may top the liberal scandal, who knows!!
http://intensedebate.com/people/RunningGag RunningGag

I'm sorry, I missed the twist. I see a cabinet minister covering up a access to information request. Can you please point it out where I've gone wrong? Perhaps we aren't entitled to know what our government is doing with our money? Perhaps we should meekly stay quiet and just do as we're told like good little worker drones?