As I have said before a
government cannot be called democratic if it is neither open nor
accountable. Part of the openness required to fulfill that
requirement is to allow officers of parliament, government
commissions, the diplomatic service and the various government
department and agencies to fulfill their various mandates without
undue interference and censure. They ALL work for US, the Canadian
Citizen, and should in a democracy be able to report to us publicly
except in the case of cabinet confidentially and matters of national
security. Those exceptions cannot be abused in a free and democratic
parliamentary democracy.
If an agency’s
mandate is to ensure that our nuclear reactors are safe, provide
scientific information on weather or climate change, provide analysis
on foreign affair or provide data necessary for assessing social and
community needs, then it needs to do that free of government
shackles.
We have seen over the
last few years an ever increasing amount of “control” put
upon the institutions by government, both directly by ministerial
order and subtlety by budget restrictions, firings and program
cancellations. This government seems to have a real problem with data
that does not suit its pre-decided agenda and when an agency head
insists upon doing their job and providing information they don’t
want to hear they can expect to be fired shortly, especially if they
should be so bold as to bring that information into the public eye.
Some time ago these various agencies were told that they could not
speak to their employers (that’s us, not the Harper regimes)
without permission from the PMO, that any press release or other
major findings must be “cleared” (read spun and
manipulated) by said Office of Misinformation.
Now in the latest salvo
we see that if non of those things work to stop the flow of accurate
information then we simply order that the collection of said
information shall cease and desist forthwith. The resignation of the
head of Stats Can is not an isolated incident, there have been
several such resignations, some firings, some commission disbandment,
some chairs replace with less independent voices, expect more. At
this point just about the only one that speaks out and provides
independent information to our MPs and to the public is our
Parliamentary Budget Officer, it seem severe budget restrictions and
attempts to place him under tight control from above have failed thus
far, you may be sure however that the efforts to silence him by the
Harper regime will continue. We cant have the FACTS getting in the
way of creating that country we wont recognize can we!
Bottom line –
accurate publicly available data is essential for a democracy to
function, be it government expenditures, the state of our communities
or information on new legislation, without it we are simply a
autocracy labeled as a democracy.
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