1.03.2008

your right to not know

Boy does this sound familiar. Too familiar.
A specially created team of military officers played a key role in severely limiting what the Canadian public was allowed to know about the country's role in Afghanistan.

Originally created to assist an investigation into the treatment of detainees in Afghanistan, the new team – codenamed Tiger Team – quickly came to scrutinize virtually every public access to information request dealing with the Afghan mission, according to documents obtained by The Globe and Mail.

In effect, the team added an extra layer of scrutiny to the access to information process, making it so complicated that an access to information official eventually described it as "convoluted."

The added scrutiny also caused many delays in responding to requests, as access to information officers struggled to understand the new system at a time when the government faced harsh criticism over the treatment of detainees.

Canadian Forces and the Department of National Defence implemented a new process last spring for judging what Canadians could and couldn't know about the Afghan mission – a process that included the creation of a military "investigation support team" that oversaw the release of documents.

At first, the team was supposed to handle just information relating to a number of Military Police Complaints Commission investigations into the detainee-handling process. However, it soon started dealing with virtually all Afghan-related access to information requests from the public.

According to documents obtained by The Globe through an access to information request, the Canadian Forces' Strategic Joint Staff launched the investigation support team on March 5, 2007. At the time, two MPCC investigations and a board of inquiry were looking into the treatment of Afghan detainees by Canadian Forces in Afghanistan.

In particular, the investigations focused on three people detained on or about April 6 or 7 of 2006.

The investigation support team, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Dana Clarke, included members of various Forces branches.

"This is the first time that the [Canadian Forces] has been engaged in hostilities since the Access to Information Act was introduced in 1985," reads a May, 2007, SJS document outlining the creation of the investigation support team.

"It has been a learning experience and a number of mistakes have been made. We have noted tendencies to be both too restrictive and too open in releasing information."

However, the documents obtained by The Globe show very few instances where the new team erred on the side of openness. [More here.]

I don't suppose this is linked to Stephen Harper's well-documented penchant for secrecy and disdain for public information? Nah. I'm sure it's just a coincidence.

My second most fervent wish for 2008 is to frequently use the words "Prime Minister Stephane Dion".

And hopefully, that will lead to my most ardent wish for 2008 coming true.

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