[BRIEF NOTE] On the secrecy of the Canadian Conservatives

[rfmcdonald]

Any number of observers of the Canadian political scene--opponents of the Conservative minority government, true--have accused said government of being addicted to secrecy. I'll quote at length from BCer in Toronto. Links are at the original page.

Gov't program wants job applicants' views on Tory budget: An elite federal program to recruit the cream of new graduates suddenly wants to know the applicants' views on the government's vaunted Economic Action Plan before they get a job interview.

Cities stuck with bill for Tory 'propaganda': The federal government is being accused of wasting millions of taxpayers' dollars by forcing cash-strapped Ontario and municipalities to help pay for billboards advertising the Conservatives' economic program at thousands of infrastructure projects. The Liberals and NDP slammed the Conservatives for requiring provincial and city governments receiving infrastructure cash to buy an additional sign at each building project specifying that the federal government paid part of the bill under its Economic Action Plan.

Raitt accused of expense abuse: Federal cabinet minister Lisa Raitt signed off on her own expenses on at least one occasion – more than $3,000 spent on a trip to London, England – when she was president and CEO of the Toronto Port Authority.

Torch relay has a lot of stops in Tory ridings: If MPs strutting at hometown torch relay celebrations was a Winter Olympic sport, the federal Conservatives would be turning in a solid gold performance. When federal riding maps are superimposed over torch relay community events, the flame's pit stop standings are as follows: Conservatives: 126 New Democrats: 29 Liberals: 21 Bloc Quebecois: 18.

Duffy blasts NDP MP as 'faker': Conservative Senator Mike Duffy called MP Peter Stoffer a "faker" Thursday after the Nova Scotia New Democrat released a report questioning the expenses of new Tory senators.

Stimulus money favours key Tories: The biggest winners of the Conservatives' stimulus extravaganza include one of the prime minister's closest friends, a riding the Tories desperately hope to win in a byelection next week, and a longtime party stalwart. Eastern Ontario MP Scott Reid, the Nova Scotia riding of Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley and British Columbia MP Jim Abbott are three of the clearest winners in the distribution of stimulus spending, a broad analysis by The Canadian Press shows.

And that's all just from this past week, and never mind the H1N1 story. Each one in isolation merits a head-shake, but in aggregate it's quite a picture.

What news item sticks out for me?

according to Canadian government officials, a biography of U.S. President Barack Obama provided to Prime Minister Stephen Harper shortly after Mr. Obama's inauguration last January qualifies as a state secret.

Under the Access to Information Act, Canwest News Service requested all briefing materials provided to the prime minister ahead of Mr. Obama's visit to Canada in February.

Mr. Obama's whirlwind stop in Ottawa on Feb. 19 was his first visit to a foreign country after being inaugurated. After a series of icebreaking meetings, the prime minister and the president pledged to co-operate on everything from the financial crisis to clean energy and Afghanistan. But the trip will perhaps best be remembered for the rock-star treatment accorded to Mr. Obama, who charmed the public by declaring his love for Canada and picking up a Beavertail dessert on an impromptu stop in the national capital's Byward Market.

The 77 pages of heavily censored documents released to Canwest include memos to Mr. Harper from his foreign-policy adviser, a letter from Canada's former ambassador to the United States, Michael Wilson, as well as talking points to prepare Mr. Harper for the meeting. It also includes biographies of the president and officials who accompanied the president on the trip to Canada, including National Security Advisor James Jones, National Economic Council director Lawrence Summers, Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

In blacking out the biographies of the president and his entourage, officials cited a section of the act that allows the government to refuse records whose disclosure could be "injurious to the conduct of international affairs, the defence of Canada or any states allied or associated with Canada."

[. . .]

Retired colonel Michel Drapeau, an expert in access-to-information law at the University of Ottawa, said it's not surprising that much of the briefing material on such a high-level meeting was being withheld. Canadian courts have tended to support the government's view that releasing such materials could hurt relations with other countries, he said.

But he said it was "silly" for Canadian officials to withhold the biography of such a prominent public figure.

"He's not the former director of the CIA, or anything. I mean, this guy's as public as it comes," Mr. Drapeau said, adding that it's highly unlikely that Canada would be privy to personal or professional information about the president that had not already been disclosed.

Is this sort of thing common outside of Canada, I ask my non-Canadian readers?