Government by denial

Just when you think the Cons can't become any more devoted to suppressing reality, they lower the bar even further:

A spokesperson for Indian Affairs, Margot Geduld, declined to answer a list of specific questions for this story.

"We don't comment on leaked documents," she said.

That's right: if a document hasn't been preapproved for public consumption, the Cons have apparently ordered Indian Affairs to pretend it doesn't exist - even once its contents are out in the open.

In this case at least, we can take heart in the fact that Chuck Strahl wasn't quite so quick to clam up. Which means that we now know how he was planning to pull a fast one on Canada's First Nations:

In an interview, Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl said it is "completely untrue" that his department is secretly proposing measures that were in the Governance Act.

"There is no legislation planned and so it's not like the Governance Act," he argued. "But my goodness, if you want to scare people in first nations country, you just talk about [former Liberal Indian Affairs minister] Bob Nault's Governance Act."

That assurance appears to be contradicted by the documents, which show the areas being addressed in the Conservative reform...are the very issues that were at the heart of the Liberal initiative. In fact, the minister changed his tone when told The Globe had documents describing the measures as a less-ambitious version of the Governance Act.
...
"A low-profile communications approach is recommended," states one document, titled "communications strategy" and marked "protected."

Under the heading "risks," a July 10, 2008, Indian Affairs presentation states that it may look like Indian Affairs "has already decided" on its reforms and that "with little time and funds, first nation participation will be limited."

But while the Cons obviously failed in their attempt to keep a lid on their decision to make zero-consultation changes to how First Nations are governed, that should offer little comfort when it's obvious that Strahl and his department have been going out of their way to mislead the public. And the fact that the Cons' new strategy is to declare any document which might expose their duplicity to be out of bounds should only make it all the more clear that their public assurances can't be trusted.