South West Shore Development Authority (SWSDA) tosses reporter from closed meeting

SWSDA tosses reporter from meeting...
Shelburne County Today
18feb2009


Despite the recent ruling by the Nova Scotia Supreme Court that the South West Shore Development Authority (SWSDA) was a public agency according to the laws of the Province and despite protests by several member politicians, CEO Frank Anderson had the Shelburne RCMP escort SCT editor and publisher Timothy Gillespie from the Shelburne meeting of the agency in Shelburne early Wednesday morning.

Anderson told Gillespie that, despite the court ruling, he considered the meeting a "private" one and not open to the public or the media. In a November, 2008 decision, Supreme Court Justice Suzanne Hood determined that, because its membership is comprised almost exclusively of elected officials and the agency's funding is almost exclusively from public funds, SWSDA is a "municipal body" and should not be exempt from legislation controlling their actions.

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One SWSDA member reported that the board of directors decided at the meeting that the agency was obliged to conform to Freedom of Information requests as "municipal agency", but determined that they were not subject to public meeting legislation. "In light of the court's recent ruling," said an authority on the governing legislation," that is a patently absurd and dangerous conclusion. All of the municipalities which comprise SWSDA are now subject to almost certain legal action in the courts and to all of the costs and bad publicity that will entail."

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