General

Tories smother release of documents

Secrecy case echoes sponsorship scandal of Liberal days

Back in 2004, the Gomery Commission, which investigated the so-called sponsorship scandal, found that the office of a Liberal public works minister, Alfonso Gagliano, behaved unethically in interfering with the release of documents. Now, Canadian Press reports that an aide to a Tory minister has similarly intervened to prevent the Access to Information system from working the way it’s supposed to. Sebastien Togneri, an official in the office of then-Public Works Minister Christian Paradis, blocked the release last year of the annual report of his department’s real estate portfolio—even though turning over the report to the CP news service was formally approved by the department’s information officials. Paradis was recently reassigned as natural resources minister, taking Togneri with him to the new portfolio.

Canadian Press

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