Friday, July 27, 2007

NDP Gives Hillier Ten Days

I'd been watching the US blogs' coverage of the Gonzales, Miers, et.al., cases, and it occured to me: Where is the sustained outrage here in Canada about the unjustified blanket of secrecy that General Ricky Hillier has pulled over our treatment and transfer of prisoners in Afghanistan?

The NDP has given CPC Defense Minister Gordon O'Connor and lil' Ricky Hiller ten working days to provide answers, or they will ask for a Parliamentary Committee to demand answers.


The Globe reported that a directive had been issued by General Hillier through the Strategic Joint Staff of the Canadian Forces to Ms. JulieJansen, Director of Access to Information and Privacy at the Department of National Defence stating that no government records on detainees taken in Afghanistan should be released under the Access to Information Act.
...

For the purposes of the Access to Information Act, Ms. Jansen is the delegated head of the Department of National Defence and as such should have the final say over what information can be released. General Hillier is a uniformed officerof the Canadian Forces and has no formal role under the ATIA, other than beingsubject to it. I would like to know how this directive was given to Ms. Jansen, whether she is subject to the chain of command of the CDS and who is the delegated head of DND for the purposes of the ATIA?

...

When Parliament passed the Access to Information Act in 1983, it created anobligation on the part of the Ministry to release government records to the public in a timely and regular fashion when requested. All exemptions to the Act mustbe limited and specific. Violations of the Act by Ministerial staff and bureaucrats are considered criminal offences.


At least someone is taking this atrocious behaviour seriously.

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