Information czar blasts Harper's accountability bill

I'd like to think it's a bad sign for Harper when the National Post is calling him out:

Information czar blasts Harper's accountability bill

Canada's information czar unleashed on Friday a scathing attack on proposed access to information reforms, calling them dangerous and disappointing.

"No previous government, since the Access to Information Act came into force in 1983, has put forward a more retrograde and dangerous set of proposals," Information Commissioner John Reid told Parliament Friday.

The bill would make it easier for the government to cover up wrongdoing, he wrote in an emergency report.

...

[I]t also suggests 10 new exemptions to block the release of information.

Eight of them contain no requirement for bureaucrats to demonstrate why records shouldn't be disclosed and contain no public interest overrides.

Reid pointed out there is currently only one such exemption (pertaining to cabinet documents) and "it has been consistently abused."

Draft internal reports and audits would also be shielded from scrutiny for 15 years and records relating to investigations of wrongdoing in government would be sealed forever.

...

In addition, recommendations Reid put forth in a draft bill last year to boost transparency weren't included in the accountability act. He had called for more oversight powers, better record-keeping by bureaucrats and a clamp-down on departments that don't fulfil their obligations, among other suggestions.

The Conservatives promised during the last election campaign to implement them all. Instead, the suggestions were shuffled off to a committee for more discussion.

...

That last bit really is the kicker.

War and Politics

When I lived in Ottawa in 2002, I remember Parliament and the other government buildings lowering their flags to half-mast when Canadian soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. Stephen Harper, the new Prime Minister, reversed government policy to not lower the flag. Moreover, the media was been banned from covering the repatriation ceremony at CFB Trenton today.

"It is not about photo-ops and media coverage," Harper told the House of Commons.

"It is about what is in the best interests of the families."

The unprecedented shutdown of a military airfield Tuesday for the arrival of four dead soldiers has drawn fire from all sides - including some military families touched by tragedy in Afghanistan.

The father of the late Sgt. Marcel Leger said the public participation in his son's homecoming in 2002 was something he will cherish forever.

"It was a Canadian thing. It was something we wanted to show all Canadians - what the cost of their liberty is," Richard Leger said.

"It's still heartwarming to (remember) the people's faces. People were lined up on the 401, in 2002, all the way from Trenton to Toronto.

"They wanted to be there. They had to be there. I was told that often. . . and those are the things I carry with me all my life."

The father of one of the fallen soldiers being repatriated Tuesday is criticizing the government over another controversial decision - to stop lowering the flags on Parliament Hill to half mast when a soldier is killed in combat.

On April 7, Lincoln Dinning wrote a letter to Harper asking him to reconsider the flag decision. The matter took a tragically personal turn two weeks later when Dinning's son, Cpl. Matthew Dinning, was killed in the line of duty.

The grandmother of Pte. Richard Green, who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan four year ago, also wants to see flags lowered.
[Canada.com: MPs, soldiers' families criticize Tory media ban on return of dead ]

Both decisions are drawing lots of criticism. Moreover, they draw parallels to Bush.

In the United States, the Bush administration has been criticized for banning images of the arrival of flag-draped coffins containing the remains of soldiers killed in Iraq.

White House officials imposed the ban out of worry that such photographs would lower public support for the military campaign.
[CBC: Harper on defensive over media ban on return of dead soldiers]

You'd think that emulating Bush would be a bad idea, e.g. Bush's approval ratings slide to new low [CNN], The Generals Revolt [CBS], and The Worst President in History? [Rolling Stone].

Vibe

I haven't been taking too many photos recently, so here are some random macro shots of my new Vibe Glasses. (As no three of drinking glasses/mugs/cups matched, I thought an upgrade was in order; I now have sixteen complementary glasses).

Bowling

I went bowling this afternoon at Garage with most of my co-workers. I haven't been bowling in a long time. I'm not very good at bowling, so my goal was to make it to 100. The first game, I did amazingly well. I made eight spares and score 147, which was the highest score of everyone (about 20 people)! Of course, the next game was not so impressive, I managed to make two strikes, but I still scored only 94.

Are Software Patents Evil?

Patent trolls are companies consisting mainly of lawyers whose whole business is to accumulate patents and threaten to sue companies who actually make things. Patent trolls, it seems safe to say, are evil. I feel a bit stupid saying that, because when you're saying something that Richard Stallman and Bill Gates would both agree with, you must be perilously close to tautologies.

Are Software Patents Evil? is (another) well-written essay by Paul Graham. (It even uses hockey as a metaphor!)

Control Room

I watched the documentary Control Room tonight. It's about Al Jazeera. Specifically, it takes place during the Iraq War (March - May 2003) and is a collection of interviews with employees of Al Jazeera as well as other pressand US military media relations officers in Qatar. The interviews are interleaved with relevant video clips from Al Jazeera (and related news footage).

It had a less context than I expected, since it was focused solely on those few weeks. Also, it was a little more "raw" than I expected. There is no narrator tying the segements together or asking questions and the "interviews" seemed ad hoc - people talking during a smoke break or while they were driving somewhere. I liked the candid feel that came from the footage that was shot while the events where in progress though.

Overall, it definitely illustrated the different perspective that the Al Jazeera journalists (and, by extension, their audience) have. Perhaps one of the more striking perspectives was the contrasting views of integrity of the US government about Al Jazeera and vice versa. Near the middle of the film, there is a clip of Donald Rumsfeld criticizing Al Jazeera. Rumsfeld says that Al Jazeera gathers children and tells them to go and play in a bomb crater, so Al Jazeera can film it - giving the impression that the US is bombing civilians. (And a germane news clip follows). Near the end of the film, one of the Al Jazeera journalists says that the US military setup the scene were Iraqis parade around the square in Baghdad while the statue of Saddam is toppled. He says that he used to live in Iraqi and the "Iraqis" in the square don't really looks like Iraqis, they don't speak like Iraqis, etc. In his view, if the scene was genuine then there would be more people in the square and their ages, genders, etc. would be more diverse (than the handful of young males that were present). The two positions could not be more ironic. I suppose that divergence of opinions helps to explain the current state of the World.

If you're into the whole documentary thing or media/politics than it's worth a view. (On the other hand, if you're not into that then you'd probably find it a little boring).

Skiing

Yesterday, I went skiing at Summit for my third (and final) lesson. I think I'm getting better. Gallery (blue-square) was closed, so the lesson was on Holiday (green-circle). Afterward, Suor took me to the top of the mountain on Central Express to go down one of the harder slopes. I feel every-which-way going down (backwards, sideways, forwards), losing a ski twice. I guess I need more practice. I had fun though.

Amusing Article About Soccer (in the US)

American sports are played with your hands. Using your feet is for commies. is an amusing article about soccer in the US.

...

The beauty of soccer for very young people is that, to create a simulacrum of the game, it requires very little skill. No other sport can bear such incompetence. With soccer, 22 kids can be running around, most of them aimlessly, or picking weeds by the sidelines, or crying for no apparent reason, and yet the game can have the general appearance of an actual soccer match. If there are three or four co-ordinated kids among the 22 flailing bodies, there will actually be dribbling, a few legal throw-ins, and a couple times when the ball stretches the back of the net. It will be soccer, more or less.

...