Cabinet secrecy blocks rationale behind “Strong. Proud Free,” the slogan dominating current federal advertising.
OTTAWA—Strong. Proud. Free. And a state secret.
The genesis of the Harper government’s “Strong Proud Free” slogan that is currently bombarding Canadian television viewers is considered a cabinet confidence and will be sealed from public scrutiny for 20 years.
A request by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act seeking any background rationale for the tag line, used to punctuate all the latest taxpayer-funded advertising, has come up empty.
That’s because a 149-page Treasury Board submission on advertising has been deemed advice to cabinet, placing it behind a wall of secrecy that even the federal information commissioner can’t penetrate. No title for the submission, nor a date, author or even the department that originally prepared it can be revealed.
A spokesman for the Privy Council Office, the bureaucracy that supports the Prime Minister’s Office, would only say that the slogan is “drawn from the thematics” of the government’s 2013 throne speech.
Opposition critics point out the language is also drawn from the 2011 Conservative party platform and mirrors the themes promoted as Conservative values on the party website and in fundraising pitches.
No comments:
Post a Comment