Issue misidentification

Harper wades into the firestorm about his refusal to let the media know when his Cabinet will meet. But any response to the actual issue will have to wait for another day, as Harper has apparently adopted the Bush tactic of arguing against a claim that nobody had made:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says there's no right for people to know when his cabinet is meeting.

While previous governments kept cabinet agendas and discussions secret, they gave advance notice of meetings so that reporters could ask questions afterward. But Harper suggested Tuesday that the very fact ministers are meeting could be kept confidential.

"Meetings of cabinet are private, this is a constitutional issue," said the prime minister, who has been limiting media access to ministers.

Traditionally, reporters gather outside the cabinet room to buttonhole ministers after the meetings. Harper has now banned journalists from the floor where the meetings are held, saying reporters can wait downstairs for ministers who may have something to say.

Now, if anybody had tried to make the case that there's a constitutional right on the media's part to attend Cabinet meetings, then Harper's response would be a strong one. But regardless of what Harper seems to think, there's a massive difference between whether the PM is legally entitled to do something, and whether he actually ought to do that thing. And while that type of attitude is dangerous enough in a private actor, it's doubly so when it comes from the same cabinet which has the ability to set the laws under which it functions.

Mind you, this is far from the first time that Harper's government has taken the view that anything which isn't clearly illegal must be above reproach. And I'm not optimistic that it'll be anywhere near the last.

That said, in addition to being a sign of bad faith, Harper's effort to save face by misstating the issue is utterly futile in this context. While the media doesn't have the right to the accomodations it's accustomed to receiving, it most certainly has the constitutional right to criticize Harper for trying to shut his government out of the public eye. And if Harper doesn't recognize the public appearance that results from his efforts to hide, he won't have any of the rights associated with the PM's office for long.