| Mining for nuggets of information in the thick, often confusing layers of government bureaucracy is no easy task, especially in Alberta.
The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) has given the Alberta government its annual Code of Silence award, naming Premier Ralph Klein and company the most secretive government body in the country.
"This year was exceptionally tough because all the finalists tried so hard to keep journalists in the dark," says CAJ president Paul Schneidereit.
Other finalists included the RCMP (for raiding Ottawa Citizen reporter Juliet O‘Neill’s home last January), and the British Columbia government (for undermining the province’s freedom of information laws).
"The Alberta government squeaked by with an astonishingly brazen performance by Premier Ralph Klein and his supporting cast," says Schneidereit. "Ralph, the Code of Silence has landed."
The CAJ says that the Klein government largely won because of the way they handled a Freedom of Information request filed by the Edmonton Journal in the run-up to last year’s provincial election.
Alberta Infrastructure was very slow in releasing documents about the use of a government airplane to the newspaper. Six months after the Edmonton Journal filed the request and two days after the provincial election, the government finally released the documents. By that time the Klein victory was set in stone.
The resulting story revealed that Klein and his ministers were using the airplane like a taxi service with virtually no accountability.
The government has responded to the CAJ award by sending out a sarcastic press release quoting Klein as saying: "It is no secret that secrecy is no laughing matter. I have been instructed by Cabinet and Caucus members at our last secret meeting that we need more openness in government, but, like, not too much."
The press release also says the government will be nominating the CAJ "for the little-known ‘Organization That Takes Itself WAAAAY Too Seriously Award,’ handed out annually to the news outlet or organization that needs to ‘cheer up’ a little."
A spokesperson for the premier says the office sent out the release "to show that we in government have a sense of humour."
But University of Calgary political analyst Anthony Sayers says it’s not really all that funny.
"This is just silly. Democracy is serious business," Sayers says, adding that the release "isn’t particularly witful; it is witless, in fact."
"This communicates a certain degree of arrogance…. One of the reasons they can get away with this is they know that Klein’s not going to face the people (in an election) again," says Sayers.
"This may be an attempt to be humorous, or it may be one of those responses you get when you’re caught with your hand in the cookie jar."
The CAJ isn’t taking the release too seriously.
"We’re certainly pleased that they’ve agreed to accept the award," says Schneidereit. "Kudos to them. I would suggest that it sits on Mr. Klein’s mantle somewhere in view of his desk where he can look on it every day."
Schneidereit says the Alberta government is the first winner to accept the award. Past winners have included Health Canada (for withholding information about drugs that could harm or kill Canadians), and the Nova Scotia government (for having the highest fees in the country for freedom of information requests).
Klein has often had tense relationships with reporters and media outlets. During last fall’s election campaign, he called the CBC "the laziest television outlet that I’ve ever encountered." When reporters would ask him about his party’s plans for the future, he would often tell them to go "do their research." |
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