Blackout

The CP's Bruce Cheadle notes that the Cons' information suppression is reaching new lows, as even official government talking points are now being withheld from access to information requests:

The Canadian Press made a request under the Access to Information Act last January seeking government briefing materials on the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership.

Among the 139 heavily censored pages produced last week by the Department of Foreign Affairs are a number of old documents that end with "talking points."

In every instance, some of the points previously prepared for public consumption (but never publicly delivered) have been blacked out.

"Canada is very pleased with bilateral consultations with Australia on uranium and nuclear issues in Canberra on Nov. 20 (2006)," begins one set of talking points, dated Feb. 20, 2007.

"Our officials agreed to seek a trilateral meeting with U.S. officials . . . ," begins the next point, before blacking out the rest of the line.

The entire next "talking point" is black.

A document dated Feb. 10, 2006, cites five talking points and two "Responsive Only" points, prepared in case of specific questions from media. The responsive points are blacked out.

Following an April 12, 2006, meeting on the GNEP between Canadian and American officials, 11 talking points were prepared by Foreign Affairs officials. A year and half later, eight of those points are blacked out.

The latest release of documents to The Canadian Press arrived last week, the same day that the Globe and Mail detailed statistics showing that the public release of government information is being choked off under the Conservative government.

Now, there's already enough reason for suspicion about the GNEP - particularly given that Deceivin' Stephen is currently instructing his cabinet to keep Canadians in the dark about ongoing negotiations.

But from the information embargo, it appears that the Cons are also unwilling to allow Canadians to find out even what they were eager to make public previously. Which should be a sure sign of both an issue that Harper is afraid to answer for, and one that's in dire need of some serious digging to get at what the Cons are hiding.