Over the past week we have heard Government MHA's suggest that "frivolous and vexatious" requests are part of the reason they have to change access to information laws.
It is commonly agreed that more information will be kept secret and some information harder to get because of the amendments to the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Bill29).
Ministers stood on their feet and dragged out samples of such requests - and while this is not the norm - they pointed out they were compelled to stop such wastage of taxpayer money.
Here's the other side of the balance: Newfoundland and Labrador has suffered many more fraudulent and bad resource deals than it has suffered "vexatious and frivolous" information requests - and the cost to the taxpayer has been far more severe from the bad and/or fraudulent and/or corrupt deals.
The billions of dollars essentially robbed from our people - be it fish, energy, minerals, forests, or cash far outweighs the few thousand dollars suffered from "frivolous and vexatious" access to information requests.
So what does the government do? Well they tighten information to protect business. Yes that says it all about fairness and balance.
We as a people should conclude that there is something to hide - as not to do so would be illogical and open us up to another 50 years of bad resource deals.
I have a request of our media - please research and present all the losses we have suffered from bad and/or corrupt business deals and compare that dollar value to the amount lost from "frivolous and vexatious" access to information requests.
While we are at it - which caused more harm to the tenuous trust we have in government; the few "frivolous and vexatious" requests presented or the marching of 4 former MHA's to jail?
Yes we should strike a balance regarding access to information - but Bill 29 is not that balance. It is a lopsided - one way - ticket to hiding information. What has been the result of that approach in our past?
3 comments:
Sue, their sick defence of this bill, is infuriating!
This reminds of the great Communist five-year plans that always painted a rosy picture while the reality was much different.
It is clear that the vast majority of the electorate are disgusted by this and only a few diehard Tories will stand with them on this.
It is up to all of us to keep a running tally of the mismanagement and incompetence this administration has shown after only 8 months in power. Heaven help us if they keep screwing up for the next 3 years.
Nicely said, and always good to meet other NL bloggers...
The two main reasons to withold information are to hide criminality and incompetence. I have the feeling that we are seeing both here. These aren't 'Danny' Conservative, these are 'Harper' Conservatives.
The Dominionist Agenda is well underway in this country, as it has been south of the border for the last few decades. Expect things to get much worse. Expect corporate money to influence our elections like never before. Expect more giveaways, and the Dunderdale goverment to do the bidding of big business while lying about it to us.
What's next? Removing evolution and climate change from school textbooks and replacing it with young earth creationism?
Expect a plutocratic, theocratic society. Democracy is dead.
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