Stephen Harper, sore loser, rigs the game again
Every time the Harper government crosses a line between what elected governments do and what they must never do, we have to wonder: How much longer can it get away with it? Is the law really just a weapon to be wielded by those with power — in order to hold on to that power? Is that all government is for now?
Whenever Prime Minister Stephen Harper finds himself in a corner, he digs himself out with whatever tools are available, ethical or otherwise. His methods are limited only by the degree of his desperation. So he shuts down Parliament when the questions get too close to the bone. He refuses to allow scientists to talk to Canadians about the research they’re paying for — the better to push arguments that fly in the face of science. He drafts a ‘fair’ election law designed to boost his chances of winning the next election.
So far, Harper has limited himself to offending democracy and the law. Now he’s re-writing history. Buried in his government’s latest omnibus budget bill is an amendment to the Access to Information Act which denies people the opportunity to make access to information requests for data from the defunct long gun registry.
Big deal, right? The data was destroyed months ago, when the Harper government repealed it. But this amendment is backdated to the day the government introduced the bill to kill the registry — not the day the bill became law. It also would protect the RCMP and other government officials from any lawsuits or prosecutions linked to the destruction of the registry data — retroactively.
Why would Harper do this? Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault alleges the RCMP destroyed registry records before the bill to destroy the long-gun registry became law, and after she told them to preserve the data while she investigated a complaint about a request for the information.
READ MORE: http://www.ipolitics.ca/2015/05/20/stephen-harper-sore-loser-rigs-the-game-again/
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