February 2010 – David Akin’s On The Hill

Laura Robinson: The Olympic movement plays fast and loose with basic democratic values

If you're all geared up the Canada-USA Men's Hockey Gold Medal game, probably best to wait until after the game's conclusion to read this essay from Laura Robinson. Laura, a friend whom I haven't seen in too long a time, loves sport — and is a tremendous athlete herself — but has always been a strong critic of those — mostly male — who control and often exploit athletes. It's an angry, cynical but important read about the so-called international Olympic event. It is definitely not the kind of celebratory journalism that mainstream media organizations, mine included, are keen to serve up as Canada finds itself tied for the all-time lead in gold medals won in any one Winter Olympics.

The short version of Her current essay, in The Literary Review of Canada, is that IOC members have too many fascists and Nazi sympathizers — I'm generalizing only slightly — but she also has much to say about the International Olympic Committee's dodgy record when it comes to one of the fundamental ground rules in our democracy: You must be accountable and you must be transparent. The IOC, in Robinson's view, fails on both counts:

One World Trust, an independent British think tank, recently ranked the IOC as the least transparent of the 30 non-profit organizations it measured.

When they appear in public, members of the IOC are surrounded by security. Journalists were initially banned from the 121st session of the Olympic Congress this past October in Copenhagen; then the 1,400 media representatives who had come to cover the selection of the host city for the 2016 Olympics were cordoned off by hundreds of police officers and security agents. Once the choice of Rio de Janeiro was announced, most of the journalists left, but there were still a couple of hundred wanting to cover the rest of the congress. The IOC allowed 17 to question delegates in the lobby of the Copenhagen Marriott during lunch and breaks, dividing the journalists into two groups, A and B, with only group A getting access to the IOC members. No reason was given for this by Mark Adams, the IOC’s communications director—at least no reason that made any sense to the journalists present. Gianni Merlo, president of the International Press Association, said, “This is unfair. We are here to talk to the IOC members. And we don’t want to be listed as A and B journalists. It’s complete nonsense to prevent us access to the delegates.” He was joined by the president of the Olympic Journalists Association, Alain Lunzenfichter, who also tried to obtain media accreditation for all journalists. At the end of days of confusion and double-talk from the IOC, Adams said: “Thanks, this was a most enjoyable press briefing.”

Tags: olympics

Germany, Greece set for re-match of 1972 "Thinkers Classic"

The Germans thought that starting Franz Beckenbauer might do the trick. When that idea fizzled, German manager Martin Luther made a surprise late substitution, putting Marx in and taking Wittgenstein out.

But it was to no avail. Greece, led by that veteran back Heraclitus, was simply too much for the Germans (see video, left). The Germans were finished off with a brilliant header by Socrates "probably the most important goal of his career."

But now, more than 35 years after that famous match, it looks like the two sides will do it again: May 9 in a match in the UK organized by The Philosophy Shop.

Tags: monty python, philosopher's football

Hockey gold; skating bronze; and Ontario's problem with a Windsor hospital: Friday's A1 headlines and Parliamentary Daybook

Hockey gold, a courageous bronze, and Ontario's problem with a Windsor hospital . Listen to my three-minute audio roundup of what's on the front pages of the country's newspapers plus highlights from Friday's Parliamentary daybook by clicking on the link below.

You can also get these audio summaries automatically every day via podcast from iTunes or via an RSS feed by subscribing to my AudioBoo stream. Both the iTunes link and the RSS link are at my profile at AudioBoo.fm. Lookin the top right corner of the "Boos" box.

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Tags: national post, globe and mail, toronto star, olympics, hockey, frechette

Olympic triumphs; a threat to Camp Mirage and a Windsor hospital's scandal: Thursday's A1 headlines and Parliamentary Daybook

Olympic triumphs; a threat to Camp Mirage, and a Windsor hospitals growing scandal . Listen to my three-minute audio roundup of what's on the front pages of the country's newspapers plus highlights from Monday's Parliamentary daybook by clicking on the link below.

Tags: National Post, Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, Olympics, Dubai, Afghanistan

Tory aides who wanted lobbying exemption decline to de-cloak

One of the key prohibitions in the famous/infamous Accountability Act was an edict that any politician or political staff and some senior bureaucrats are forbidden from becoming registered lobbyists for five years after leaving office or their government job.

The law gave one slim out on this prohibition: If you wanted to become a lobbyist before that five-year ban was up, you could apply to the Commissioner of Lobbying, an independent officer of Parliament, and ask for the equivalent of papal dispensation to go ahead and become a lobbyist.

The commissioner, Karen Shepherd, was asked about this exemption process in October when she appeared in front of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics.

I've blogged about this issue and that meeting before and this post updates that one with some new information.

At that meeting, Shepherd talked about the exemption process and noted that she had granted a handful of them since setting up shop (much to the disappointment of NDP MP Pat Martin). But she also noted that she had refused exemption applications for other political staffers. Liberal MP Michelle Simson wanted to know which staffers got turned down. Shepherd declined to respond saying that if Simson wanted that information, she would have to file a request under the federal Access to Information Act. Which is exactly what I did after that meeting last October.

The fruit of that request, such as it is, arrived this week. (Which is, sadly, remarkably fast for a ATI request these days).

I had asked for:

“The names of the public office holders who have applied for exemptions under the Lobbying Act since its coming into force on Jul y 2, 2008 and who were denied an exemption. Please provide the names of these individual s and public office or offices held”

Pierre Ricard-Desjardins, the Commissioner's Access To Information Cooordinator, and I had a telephone discussion about this last month and it became apparent that, under the rules of the Access to Information Act, the information I was seeking was “personal information” and, therefore, could not be released unless the individuals involved waived their right to privacy. “We therefore asked whether the persons in question would consent to the release of their names and of the public offices they held, as required under Section 19 of the Access to Information Act,” Desjardins wrote to me this week. “These persons subsequently refused to authorize the disclosure of this information. Consequently, we will not be able to release it.”

Handing out Ottawa's billions: Who does it and where

Since they were re-elected in October, 2008, the federal Conservatives have rolled out 3,229 press releases from government departments, agencies, and Crown corporations which announce funding commitments of various sizes for various regions. We maintain a database of information contained in those releases and here's the latest tallies from that database. A chart summarizing the number of releases by the province in which the spending was announced and the total dollars committed in those releases is at the left. Here's some of the trends:

Nearly one in three of those spending announcements is made by ministers who were in the province of Quebec when they made the announcement. A total of 966 press releases carry a placeline in that province. The funding commitments outlined in those releases total $13.3 billion, most of which, but not all, will be spent in the province.
Just 11 of those releases carry a placeline in Nunavut where spending commitments worth a total of $108 million have been rolled out. That's the fewest number of releases by province or territory.
Combined, the 3,229 releases tout spending commitments of $75 billion. Some of that is new money, some is old money, some is re-announced money. But in every case, the government is issuing a a release to call attention to and, one assumes, win political credit for spending money.
Denis Lebel, the Minister of State for the regional economic development agency of Quebec has signed off on more releases than any other minister. His department has issued 648 releases. Diane Finley, the human resources minister is second, signing off on 604 spending announcements, followed by Lynn Yelich, the minister in charge of regional economic development for the West (414), Keith Ashfield, minister in charge of Atlantic Canada's economic development agency (344) and James Moore, the Heritage Minister (340)
If add up the amounts of money committed in each release, Finley comes out on top at $22 billion. Infrastructure Minister John Baird is next at $15.4 billion, followed by Industry Minister Tony Clement at $10.6 billion, Defence Minister Peter MacKay at $8.3 billion and Christian Paradis who was, until the last cabinet shuffle, public works minister, at $3.1 billion

A historic gold; weakened women's rights; and a foster care crisis: Tuesday's A1 headlines and Parliamentary daybook

Canada wins a historic gold; the U.N. says women's equality eroded in Canada; and a foster care crisis in Saskatchewan. Listen to my three-minute audio roundup of what's on the front pages of the country's newspapers plus highlights from Monday's Parliamentary daybook by clicking on the link below.

Tags: national post, toronto star, globe and mail, rights and democracy, equality, olympics

Canada's failing federal Access to Information system

I'm quoted in a piece Jeff Davis wrote that was published in today's Hill Times talking about Canada's crunked Access to Information system. I told Davis that, from my viewpoint, the system was screwed up and underfuned — but has been forever, under governments of all stripes.

“It's not that the Conservatives are particularly bad at this compared to any other group: governments are bad, I can't stress that enough,” I told Davis. “Governments, historically, do not want to tell the public what's going on in a lot of areas.”

Davis also interviews Dean Beeby of The Canadian Press, an ATI ace with a great nose for writing a information request that produces documents with a good story in them.

In Beeby's view — and its one I'll defer to as he's had much more experience than I have with federal ATI requests — Canada's access regime has gotten worse than ever under the Conservatives who, ironically, loudly and frequently claim they've made government more accountable and transparent than ever. Beeby tells Davis he's “never seen the system so broken. Back in the eighties, when I first started using it, governments were more naïve about it and were unclear about what strategies were available to them,” he said. “Over the decades, governments have gotten much smarter about ways in which the act can be circumvented or subverted…. and successive governments have become more sophisticated at finding the loopholes.”

Beeby and I, though, are bit players in Davis' piece. The starring role goes to an unnamed Tory political staffer who says that it is “standard operating procedure” for ministerial or political staff to interfere with the release of documents under the Access to Information Act, a big no-no a possible violation of federal law:

Cabinet ministers' offices had been under orders to pressure bureaucrats to pare down the amount of information released under the Access to Information Act up until The Canadian Press recently broke the story on how one political staffer killed the release of a document, forcing the Prime Minister's Office to get involved and to do some damage control, says one Conservative staffer.

“Since we formed government, the PMO has been pressuring us to take a hard line on ATIP requests,” the staffer, who did not want to be identified, told The Hill Times.

The Toronto Star's Tonda MacCharles has more evidence of Tory staffers behaving badly when it comes to interfering with the release of information:

The release of an annual firearms report last fall was delayed by testy officials in the public safety minister's office who demanded to know, among other things, details about an employee “celebration” of the program's 10th anniversary.
That was just one of a series of questions posed to RCMP officials after the 2008 Commissioner of Firearms Report was delivered to the minister's office for tabling – a full seven weeks before it was released publicly.
Emails obtained by the Star show then-public safety minister Peter Van Loan's office sat on the report for weeks until after a contentious parliamentary vote that saw 12 NDP and eight Liberal MPs succumb to political pressure and support ending the long-gun registry.

To give you one more sense of how gummed up things are right now: I routinely ask for the House Cards of ministers I cover. House Cards are prepared by bureaucrats to give ministers some answers and backgrounds to questions they might receive that day in the House of Commons. That's why they're called House Cards. A minister might have to prepare to face questions on up to a dozen different subjects each day, depending on what's hot in the news, and so bureaucrats try to anticipate these questions and give the minister some suggested answers and some background. Of course, a minister might get through Question Period without ever being called on to answer a question or may not otherwise use these House Cards.I collect them because, for one thing, they're great background when you go to write about a given issue and, if they arrive in time, they might give you some sense where the government is heading on a certain issue or where it might feel a bit vulnerable.
A House Card's usefulness, however, tends to diminish over time. And, though House Cards are a routine document which, you would think, would not require too much vetting, it's taking longer and longer to get them. Today, for example, I'm going through two months worth of House Cards for one minister that were released to me on Feb. 10. When did I ask for them? 767 days ago on January 5, 2008. To me, taking that long is breaking the law. To the current government, that's just the way the system works. The only person who's going to decide who's right about that view is the voter. When voters start to care, perhaps politicians will start putting the resources, money and attitude into the system to make it work better.

access to information, access to information

Maxime Bernier, Sheila Copps host annual Black and White Ball

One of the highlights of the social season in Ottawa is the annual Black and White ball, a benefit for the National Arts Centre Orchestra and Opera Lyra Ottawa. This year's event, to be held next Saturday, Feb. 27, is co-hosted by Conservative MP Maxime Bernier and former Liberal MP Sheila Copps. The evening features lots of other cameos and performances by Ottawa's political class. Here's more details of the lineup for this year's event:

MP5, a singing group featuring Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl singing with Ed Fast, Randy Kamp, Kevin Sorenson, and Mark Warawa. Sorenson reprsents the Alberta riding of Crowfoot but the rest are all Conservative MPs from British Columbia.
Justin Trudeau, Liberal MP from Papineau in Montreal
Bob Rae, Liberal MP from Toronto Centre
Lisa Raitt, Labour Minister and Conservative MP from Halton, Ont.

In the world's slums, a vision of the green city of the future

A billion people live in the slums of the world's biggest cities. In 25 years, 2 billion people will be slum-dwellers. Stewart Brand looks at the slum and sees a hopeful future of compact urbanization that ought to be encouraged. It's a fascinating read. Here's some excerpts:

Vast numbers of people will begin climbing the energy ladder from smoky firewood and dung cooking fires to diesel-driven generators for charging batteries, then to 24/7 grid electricity. They are also climbing the food ladder, from subsistence farms to cash crops of staples like rice, corn, wheat and soy to meat—and doing so in a global marketplace. Environmentalists who try to talk people out of it will find the effort works about as well as trying to convince them to stay in their villages. Peasant life is over, unless catastrophic climate change drives us back to it. For humanity, the green city is our future.

The point is clear: environmentalists have yet to seize the opportunity offered by urbanisation. Two major campaigns should be mounted: one to protect the newly-emptied countryside, the other to green the hell out of the growing cities.
The reversal of opinion about fast-growing cities, previously considered bad news, began with The Challenge of Slums, a 2003 UN-Habitat report. The book’s optimism derived from its groundbreaking fieldwork: 37 case studies in slums worldwide. Instead of just compiling numbers and filtering them through theory, researchers hung out in the slums and talked to people. They came back with an unexpected observation: “Cities are so much more successful in promoting new forms of income generation, and it is so much cheaper to provide services in urban areas, that some experts have actually suggested that the only realistic poverty reduction strategy is to get as many people as possible to move to the city.” The magic of squatter cities is that they are improved steadily and gradually by their residents.

Urban roofs offer no end of opportunities for energy saving and “reconciliation ecology.” Planting a green roof with its own ecological community is well-established. For food, add an “ultraefficient greenhouse”; for extra power, add solar collectors. And the most dramatic gains can come from simply making everything white. According to a 2008 study from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, if the world’s 100 largest cities replaced their dark roofs in this way, it could offset 44 metric gigatonnes of greenhouse gases.

[If slums are considered] overall a net good for those who move there, it is because cities offer more than just jobs. They are transformative: in the slums, as well as the office towers and leafy suburbs, the progress is from hick to metropolitan to cosmopolitan, and with it everything the dictionary says that cosmopolitan means: multicultural, multiracial, global, worldly-wise, well travelled, experienced, unprovincial, cultivated, cultured, sophisticated, suave, urbane.

slums