Because the ever-petulant Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, backed by his always doting and sycophantic executive, continues to boycott The Toronto Star on all official notices and pronouncements from his office, the paper has decided to file an official complaint with the city's integrity commissioner.
As reported in an article by Torstar Chair John Honderich in today's edition, the genesis of Ford's childish edict is a story that the paper ran during the mayoral campaign about his conduct as a football coach. At the time, Ford the candidate said he was going to sue the paper for libel, but never followed up on his threat, and has since stipulated that his freeze will stay in place until the Star runs an apology above the fold on page 1. As he recently told reporter Daniel Dale, “I don’t talk to the Star till you guys apologize. You guys (are) liars.”
Putting aside the howls of outrage that would have attended such a proclamation had a liberal mayor issued such a fatwah against a right-wing news organization, the Star, I believe, is right when it says that his boycott raises a serious issue of abuse of power and directly affects [their] ability to cover city hall and serve [their] readers.
The issue clearly goes beyond one person with an axe to grind. Ford, because of the political power he wields, was able to get political compliance from his executive committee to shelve Councillor Adam Vaughan's “free press and democracy” motion [that] would have prohibited city employees and politicians from excluding any specific journalist or news outlet from any “media conference,” “media event” or news release.
It has been said that all politics is local. That is also probably the best place to take a stand against political corruption as well.
Showing posts with label freedom of information requests. Show all posts
Showing posts with label freedom of information requests. Show all posts
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
The Conservatives Strike Again
A disturbing but not really surprising story appears in today's Star detailing how two well-known academic critics of the Conservative Party of Canada are being targeted, apparently for their outspokenness.
The two University of Ottawa professors, "Errol Mendes and Amir Attaran, frequently castigated as Liberal sympathizers by the Conservatives, were notified in recent weeks of two unusually massive freedom-of-information requests at the University of Ottawa, demanding details of the professors’ employment, expenses and teaching records."
While the names of requesters under Freedom of Information rules are kept anonymous, a logical inference is that it is Conservative operatives who are behind the request, given their leader's well-known propensity for targeting those who have the temerity to disagree with his stances and edicts. Even in the highly unlikely event that the Harperites have nothing to do with this intimidation tactic, Harper and his crew have only themselves to blame for being the prime suspects, having so poisoned the political landscape by their divisive and obnoxious rhetoric that rational and reasoned dialogue has become almost impossible in Canada.
I can only hope that the University of Ottawa delays the release of the information requested for as long as the Harper Government has been known to, which in many cases has been several years.
The two University of Ottawa professors, "Errol Mendes and Amir Attaran, frequently castigated as Liberal sympathizers by the Conservatives, were notified in recent weeks of two unusually massive freedom-of-information requests at the University of Ottawa, demanding details of the professors’ employment, expenses and teaching records."
While the names of requesters under Freedom of Information rules are kept anonymous, a logical inference is that it is Conservative operatives who are behind the request, given their leader's well-known propensity for targeting those who have the temerity to disagree with his stances and edicts. Even in the highly unlikely event that the Harperites have nothing to do with this intimidation tactic, Harper and his crew have only themselves to blame for being the prime suspects, having so poisoned the political landscape by their divisive and obnoxious rhetoric that rational and reasoned dialogue has become almost impossible in Canada.
I can only hope that the University of Ottawa delays the release of the information requested for as long as the Harper Government has been known to, which in many cases has been several years.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)