Roundup: Cabinet confidences for slogans

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In case you wanted to know why the government has chosen the slogan “Strong Proud Free” on their new ad campaigns that blur the partisan line, well, good luck, You see, they’ve been declared a cabinet confidence, which means that they’ll be sealed for twenty years. Ladies and gentlemen, the most open and transparent government in the history of ever! It’s one of those cases where one hopes that The Canadian Press will file a complaint with the Information Commissioner, because then there’s a chance that she’ll be able to actually examine the file (eventually – she’s a bit overloaded and has little operating budget left) to test whether it really should be a cabinet confidence, and if not, she can work what powers she does possess to get it released (though that is likely to mean going to court given the current sad state of Access to Information legislation). Elsewhere, a court case involving misconduct of the RCMP protection detail of the Prime Minister is looking to get the records in question sealed, apparently using clauses from terrorism trials, to keep information about the PM’s family private. While there is likely some reason to keep certain details private, and We The Media are generally reluctant to drag a politician’s family though the mud, RCMP misconduct is serious business and probably shouldn’t be kept behind closed doors for the very reasons why there have been problems in the Force for so long. Sunlight, generally, is the best disinfectant. But it’s not all bad news for Access to Information – a Federal Court judge ruled that government departments can’t charge fees for requested electronic documents, as they have been trying to do, as that undermines the very point of the Access laws in the first place, which are supposed to cost no more than $5, and it’s not like you’re photocopying or printing these documents – they’re already electronic. In all, however, it points to the genuine need to modernise the system, and this government just voted down a chance to do just that when they killed Justin Trudeau’s private member’s bill on doing just that.

Good reads:

  • The Duffy trial yesterday heard from three witnesses who all received payment from Duffy through his holding company (including new questions about that payment for the make-up artist), and the trainer made the camera crews work for their scrum moment.
  • Provinces outside of Quebec are facing cuts to immigrant integration services, but Quebec’s funding is going up thanks to an agreement signed in 1991.
  • Yet more gaffes by Kenney in his tweeting about his portfolio is drawing some internal ire at National Defence.
  • A new official map of Canada makes it look like we have more Arctic sea ice than we do, because it uses a 30-year median, for comparisons’ sake, allegedly.
  • Colby Cosh looks at those statistics on missing and murdered Aboriginal women that have tempers flaring.

Odds and ends:

Here’s a look at the underwater dive of HMS Erebus wreck in the Arctic.

The RCAF wants to buy new training simulators to save on wear-and-tear on existing aircraft and to save on fuel costs.

Yukon has joined the national securities regulator project, along with BC, Saskatchewan, Ontario, New Brunswick and PEI.