Government leaks happen all the time. They're actually vital to a democracy because it gets issues out in the public domain. With the sole exception of the early release of budget information (which is the reason for media lock downs, to ensure no one can take advantage of the stock market based on advanced data) there is simply no reason to punish someone for getting the goods to the media. In fact, the last time any leak led to serious charges was against Doug Small when he got a hold of the 1989 budget. He was acquitted because the RCMP charged the reporter, not the Finance Department official who smuggled out that year's summary of the numbers.
So the news that the Harperites are charging a senior bureaucrat with breaking some vague notion of "secrecy" is even more proof that the Man from Calgary wants to turn emaciate Parliament and turn the Privy Council into Star Chamber. The public service is supposed to service the public, not the Prime Minister. And in reference to the PMO I mean "service" in the usual and the implied sense.
Words cannot express my anger on this.
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2 comments:
Of course, although the Supreme Court at last put a few roadblocks in the way this past February, Star Chamber tactics and secret trials have been used in this country to target Muslim men with almost no due process for some time...
Not to mention similar attacks on those even vaguely associated with the left in decades past...
Scott, that's a good point, and it was happening under the Liberals. That did occur to me after I posted, as well as the fact that we've had secret trials under the Official Secrets Act -- sorry, the Security of Information Act, it was renamed after 9/11 -- for ages.
The scary thing is that it's been happening on a more frequent basis in the last seventeen months. Intimidating ordinary citizens is one thing. Scaring people on your own payroll is a new ballgame and when one gets rid of the autonomy of public servants then anything is possible.
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