The reviews are in

Don Martin finds Guy Giorno's committee appearance today to have made for an implausible performance of a tired script:

In a startling display of bad timing, Mr. Giorno faced his tormentors an hour after Access to Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault attacked the Harper government for obstruction and stonewalling.

It set up an interesting clash between a parliamentary officer giving the Harper government a severe tongue-lashing for blocking public data and a chief of staff who proclaims himself a true believer in public access to information.

Mr. Giorno was to be admired for delivering a charming imitation of a sand-buried ostrich head, refusing to acknowledge he was even in a hot seat and declaring with repetitive gusto that an effective information-release process was in place.

The way he argued it, political staff do not have the right to slow down or stop public information from being released and besides, it’s all about ministerial responsibility that has nothing to do with his PMO.

Of course nobody believed a word of the argument that this government has a hands-off policy when it comes to closely supervising the release of bad-news information.
...
Naturally, the official opposition parties were frustrated by Mr. Giorno’s selective hearing impediment to their questions and a brain loaded only with his own talking points. In the end, they engaged in a pointless search for insight from a guy who patiently and politely revealed only what he wanted to say and not a syllable more.