Licia Corbella is the editor of the Calgary Sun and the latest journalist to receive an “exclusive” interview with Prime Minister Harper. Some excerpts from her latest column, based on that interview:
Alan Leadbeater, Canada's deputy information commissioner, claims the Conservatives new Accountability Act, which is before the Senate, will actually make accessing government documents more difficult.
“That is completely false,” says Harper.
“Even the opposition hasn't proposed any amendments that would correct this problem, because there is not such a problem. The truth is you've got an extreme view in the information commissioner's office that things like journalistic sources should not be protected — they've got really radical positions that we will not adopt. The bottom line is, this act opens up information, it puts a range of crown corporations and foundations under Access to Information for the first time in history. That is what it does with regards to access to information. All the rest of what they say is completely false and without foundation.”
The biggest laugh of the interview came when Harper was questioned about a story that broke a couple of weeks ago, when the Liberals accused the Conservatives of doing what they themselves did for 13 years in power.
Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart is looking into an incident in which government officials discussing topics of media interest shared the name of a journalist who had made a request under the Access to Information Act. That's an apparent violation of the Privacy Act.
“I don't know who asks for information and I'm not sure why it would matter anyway,” says Harper. “I mean, why would I care?”
Some people would say it's so you can punish the journalists who ask, he's told.
“I punish them all anyway.”
At that, he has a long and sustained laugh, knowing his thorny relationship with the Ottawa Press Gallery has in itself, garnered headlines.
After he stops laughing, he adds, “Look, I don't assume any of them are friends and I assume they'll ask for information — that's what access is for.”
Many in Harper’s own caucus, incidentally, worry that there is backtracking by the PMO when it comes to their party’s election promises to strengthen access to information laws.