May
15, 2007
FOI
Them Says Stonewally
Bruce
Ralston: "Apparently, the Attorney General won't
commit to tabling the reports that we just spoke of moments
ago. So my question is to the Minister of Finance. Since
the Minister of Finance is responsible for the public of
affairs bureau and pays for Mr. Chase's salary, will she
commit to tabling those less-than-sinister reports here
today in the Legislature?"
Hon.
Wally Oppal: "You know, if the opposition has an
interest in the reports, they can always FOI them."
Stonewally
Oppal had another tough day in question period. The NDP
wanted to know why taxpayers were paying for someone from
the public affairs bureau to monitor the Basi-Virk
trial and report back to the government. Oppal couldn't
use his customary line, refusing to answer because the matter
is before the court, because the presence of a government-paid
observer has nothing to do with "matters before the
court"; it has to do with how the government spends
our money to protect their interests.
The
NDP's environment critic, Shane Simpson, summed up Oppal's
apparent confusion when he asked:
"It
seems like the Attorney General does not really understand
what's going on in this case at all. He's the one who raised
the issue that it was reports that were being produced.
Then when asked questions about the reports, he said that
they weren't sinister reports. Then when asked further questions
about the reports, he said that, actually, reports don't
exist. The confusion abounds."
"Now the Attorney General is saying that articles are
written by this individual. To the Attorney General: where
are those articles? How can we find them? Are they published
on the Web? Are they published under this author's name
or some other name, if he's writing in a pseudonym?"
It would
be interesting to know how many freedom of information requests,
besides
the one I put in, were submitted following Oppal's invitation
to FOI the reports. Isn't it interesting how "FOI"
has become a verb? As Rob Fleming responded, "Jeez,
another victory for openness and transparency." Don't
hold your breath waiting to see the briefing notes, reports,
articles or whatever they are that Mr. Chase may have produced.
If the Campbell government is true to form, it will take
months before heavily censored documents are finally released.
Fortunately, there is no rush, this and all the other unanswered
questions of the past few weeks will come back to haunt
the Campbell government, if not this fall, then in February
2008 when the Legislature is called next year, or in February
2009 on the eve of the next election.
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