November is a month
in which we talk much about freedom, and the sacrifices made to ensure we keep
it. Canadians are so thankful for the freedoms we do have, but there remains
one area in which freedom is sadly lacking: Freedom of Information.
Withholding information, or not sharing it
fully, has become a Canadian personality trait. Two recent examples illustrate
this.
When Michael Zehaf-Bibeau killed Cpl.
Nathan Cirillo at the national war memorial, then stormed the Parliament
buildings, the public learned his name from American news media. Our law
enforcement bosses withheld his name despite knowing it almost from the
beginning of the rampage.
Americans are more forthcoming with
information the public should know. Reporters in the U.S. got Zehaf-Bibeau’s
name from the FBI. The FBI knew the name because the RCMP called them and asked
if they had any information on this guy as a terrorist.
Our law enforcement officials had no reason
not to tell us the shooter’s name and did so only after American news reports
named him.
Earlier this month when Canadian fighter
planes made their first strike against ISIS in Iraq, the military brass refused
to give details of the mission. The strike took place Sunday and the military
waited until Tuesday to say what happened. In the meantime, Canadians learned
from the U.S. military that our planes had destroyed a Jeep and some
bulldozers.
That information produced smirks in many
quarters: Canada goes to war and takes out a Jeep and some bulldozers! Typically
Canadian!
The mission, we learned later, was an
important one. ISIS was using the construction equipment to divert water from
the Euphrates River in an effort to flood areas and force civilians and Iraqi
military to use mined roads.
Our military bosses should have released the
results of the mission quickly instead of sitting on them. Then Canadians would
have had full information on what their pilots achieved instead of the sketchy
American-supplied information that made the mission look like a bit of a joke.
Those are two relatively minor examples.
However, every day our governments and others withhold or slant information
important to Canadians.
Canadian government folks always get it
backwards when discussing public news releases. Reasons for not
releasing information always come first. The reasons for releasing
information come last. It should be the other way around.
