Stephen Harper has "turned Ottawa into a partisan swamp" during his years in power, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said Tuesday as he promised a more transparent government if he is elected in October.
About all of that:
By the time Parliament reconvenes on Sept. 23 for a Speech from the Throne, and the various committees that were probing the WE scandal eventually get back to work, there is a great risk that the public will have moved on.
That would be a mistake for two reasons. One is that the government’s attempt to circumvent Parliament and dodge accountability should simply not be allowed to stand. The other is that there are two recent revelations that demand further investigation.
The first is that it appears the government tried to mislead the public about who it was that so heavily censored WE Charity documents that were released to members of Parliament in August.
The finance committee issued a production order in July demanding that all government documentation related to the decision to give WE Charity the contract to administer the defunct Canada Student Service Grant be turned over to it by Aug. 8.
The various departments involved submitted more than 5,000 pages of documents, but hundreds were so heavily redacted that it is easy to imagine that there is currently a shortage of black printer toner in federal government offices.
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New Democrat MP Charlie Angus is calling for an expanded investigation into "alleged favouritism in the awarding of federal contracts," over the quarter-billion contract given to former Liberal MP Frank Baylis' biomedical company. according to Blacklock's Reporter.
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Internal emails show federal agencies used the pandemic to shut down Access To Information disclosures even as cabinet boasted of openness and transparency. Advocates rate Canada worse than Bulgaria in concealing documents from the public: “Access To Information processing is NOT a critical service.”
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