Ottawa

Information as the enemy

While an evaluation report of the gun registry languishes in some sort of bureaucratic purgatory, the office of Public Safety Minister Vic Toews explains why you don’t need to see it anyway.

“Canadians don’t need another report to know that the long-gun registry is very efficient at harassing law-abiding farmers and outdoors enthusiasts, while wasting billions of taxpayer dollars,” a spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews told the Star Tuesday.

This all may sound familiar. Last November, around the time of the last vote on the long-gun registry, another report was delayed and the office of the Public Safety Minister used nearly the exact same words to explain why. The dispute inspired one of the greatest displays of ministerial obfuscation in modern history from Mr. Toews’ predecessor.

A day later it was reported that the report had been submitted four weeks previous. Last May, evidence turned up that the report had been submitted seven weeks previous.

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