Separate and unequal

Don Martin rightly laments the media's failure to stand up to PMS. But Tim Naumetz reports that the pattern of secrecy and information suppression is only getting worse, as Con ministers have happily bought into a separate computer system to try to keep their own documents from becoming subject to Access to Information requests:

A government briefing note to Treasury Board President John Baird discloses the existence of a confidential computer system designed to keep ministerial documents, including contracts, from the public.

The memorandum sent to Mr. Baird soon after the Conservative government took office last February advised him that even though the Tories promised to make cabinet ministers subject to the Access to Information Act, a "segregated" Internet server could be established to ensure his documents could not be obtained under the act...

"Control for the purposes of the ATIA goes beyond physical possession to encompass records over which there is some sort of legal control or a power to produce," the memo says. "That is why it is important for records of the Minister or exempt (political) staff to be kept separate from departmental employees."

The memo adds that the same considerations applied to contracts concluded by a minister's office.

"Once information on contracts is transmitted from the President's Office to TBS (Treasury Board Secretariat) officials, they fall within the scope of the ATIA and are accessible, subject to the relevant statutory exemptions," says the memo, obtained by Ottawa researcher Ken Rubin under the Access to Information Act.

Mr. Baird's communications director confirmed the minister agreed to the arrangement -- despite a Conservative election campaign promise to open up ministerial records -- but described it as "routine administrative business" that applied to all cabinet ministers.

Communications director Mike Van Soelen said the measure was in place to streamline the system for Access to Information officials, who otherwise would have to "sort through everything" to keep ministerial records from being released through the act...

NDP MP Pat Martin said Mr. Baird's agreement to establish a separate computer server system indicates the Conservatives may have dropped plans to include ministerial records in the Access to Information Act.

"At the very moment they are crafting legislation to expand freedom of information, they were planning to circumvent it," said Mr. Martin.

Of course, the Libs deserve blame for setting up the system as well. But they at least can claim to have been relatively consistent in their contempt for public accessibility - unlike the Cons, whose campaign for transparency has once again been shown to apply to eveybody besides themselves.

The result for now is to ensure that documents in the hands of the office of the Cons' point man on accountability are kept immune from the access to information process regardless of whether or not the documents actually fit within a statutory exemption. Which leaves only the question of whether both media figures and voters will give the Cons a free pass on their broken promise of accountability, or whether they'll recognize the need for a governing party which consistently recognizes the value of genuine transparency.