At no other time in history could information flow more freely, yet governments are increasingly prone to controlling the flow of information. Will there ever be a government with enough integrity to put the public鈥檚 right to know ahead of short-sighted political expediency?
During the B.C. legislative session, which ended last week, the NDP opposition hammered away at the B.C. Liberal government on, among other things, bureaucrats鈥� eagerness to delete important emails and the government鈥檚 reluctance to fully explain the Health Ministry firings of 2012.
Tim Duncan, a former executive assistant to Transportation Minister Todd Stone, said last week that he was instructed by a senior official to delete emails following a freedom-of-information request. When he hesitated, the other employee took over the keyboard and deleted the files. Duncan said the practice was common among political appointees.
He has written about the issue to information and privacy commissioner Elizabeth Denham, who began an investigation. Opposition critic Doug Routley has asked Denham to expand her investigation to include three additional cases in which officials are alleged to have destroyed 鈥渒ey records鈥� connected to FOI requests.
Duncan said that when he questioned another superior about the practice of deleting emails, his concerns were brushed off with the comment: 鈥淚t鈥檚 like in the [TV show] West Wing. You do whatever it takes to win.鈥�
If that is indeed what was said, it bespeaks an attitude of putting political gain ahead of public good, of using information as a tool in the never-ending battle for public approval with an eye firmly on the next election.
Information can be dangerous; being open about the business of government carries a certain amount of risk. Officials, wary of being hoist on their own petards, are reluctant to leave a paper trail that could haunt them in the future.
鈥淭he lack of documentation undermines the ability of citizens, journalists and the public to understand the basis for government鈥檚 actions on any particular matter,鈥� said Denham in 2013 as she criticized the Christy Clark administration鈥檚 penchant for 鈥渙ral government.鈥�
Keeping records of decision-making is vital, says Vincent Gogolek, executive director of the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association. The absence of those records raises the prospect of 鈥渢rying to get some retired assistant deputy minister in a rocking chair to explain why the government acted the way it did.鈥�
The lack of documentation hampers the government鈥檚 ability to defend its actions, such as in the firing of an employee.
鈥淭his could end up costing us dearly,鈥� said Gogolek. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not a good situation on many, many levels.鈥�
And it鈥檚 about accountability. It鈥檚 a mystery that the B.C. government still can鈥檛 determine who made the decision to fire the Health Ministry employees. It strains credulity to believe that senior officials don鈥檛 know who did it; a coverup is a more likely explanation.
And when something is found to have been covered up, the public is not unjustified in thinking other things are being covered up.
The chokehold on information is not a disease peculiar to the B.C. government. It permeates the Harper government, to the extent that the Prime Minister鈥檚 Office is the agency that controls almost every piece of information.
As the information flows through many-layered communications departments, it is strained, filtered, distilled and flavoured to the point where it becomes a pale version of the facts, serving little good other than to make the party in power look good or protect it from embarrassment.
We have not yet become the society portrayed in George Orwell鈥檚 dystopian novel 1984, in which the government controls every scrap of information to conform to the party line, but we鈥檙e inching uncomfortably closer.
