Secrecy under assault December 11, 2008 What are the limits of government secrecy in a free society? That weighty poser will be put to no less a deliberative body than Canada's Supreme Court today in a one-day challenge that could fundamentally alter the public's right to know. The federal government, along with seven provinces led by Ontario, will argue for judges to show caution when deciding whether citizens have the constitutional backing for more open government as part of the Charter of Rights guarantee protecting freedom of expression. Various groups, including media organizations and civil liberties advocates, have grown weary of increasing government foot-dragging and weak access laws that allow them to maintain a cone of silence around the most basic pieces of information -- information cheerfully dispensed by most Western democracies. As Ontario's independent assistant information and privacy commissioner Tom Mitchinson told Canwest News Service, "Government's denial of access to information of public interest concerning the administration of our democratic institutions deprives the public of the building blocks of political expression." FULLARTICLE: <http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Secrecy+under+assault/1060776/story.html>
Image by Lone Primate via Flickr
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=11ac2dd0-f7a6-46c0-a3f9-89b61fd4211f)
Posts
