Madam Speaker, if the justice minister's recent Access to Information Act discussion paper was the government's best pre-election effort, then the Prime Minister's Liberals have blown any credibility they may have had in transparency on this file.
The justice minister's access to information discussion paper is heavily slanted on the secrecy side. It was done without any public input but had plenty of special interest inside help. Not one of the numerous existing exemptions and exclusions in the access act are proposed to be dropped. The access act would be left with a general clause for continually adding statutory confidential provisions from other acts that would override it. In addition, dozens of other new secrecy rules are suggested.
Why are the Liberals giving an immense boost to the existing culture of secrecy which is so prevalent in Ottawa already? What have the Liberals got to hide?