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Canada has become a nation of sheep. We have evolved a culture of docility, and politicians, bureaucrats, justice officials and police take full advantage.
We pay them, but when we want to see how they're working, they shut their doors in our faces.
Just the other day, the board of TransLink, the regional transportation authority, debated options for the Pattullo Bridge, notorious killer of motorists. The public and the media were banned from the meeting. The board issued a news release after its decision.
At all levels of government, officials throw up barriers to public oversight, so they can operate with a minimum of scrutiny and accountability.
Canadians sit and take it.
Police hide behind media spokespeople who give the press and the citizens as little information as possible.
Judges impose publication bans, with prosecutors' consent, at the drop of a defence lawyer's hat.
Bureaucrats withhold information about their agencies' actions, abusing privacy legislation intended to protect, not obscure.
In the United States, the people wouldn't stand for this. In Canada, Big Brother knows better.
Want to read the shocking truth about two of the 20 more women Willie Pickton is accused of killing? Sorry, the judge says I can't tell you, even though the Crown has decided already those 20 victims' cases will be dropped if Pickton loses his appeal.
Want to know which electric-car maker hoping to sell to Canadians failed spectacularly in its government crash test? Sorry, Transport Canada won't reveal that, because this "model corporate citizen" asked it not to.
Want to know why the Crown released Peter Lee on bail a few weeks before he killed his wife, son, parents-in-law and himself in Oak Bay? Sorry, the provincial government is fighting to keep the prosecutors in question from testifying at an inquiry into the slaughter.
Want to know which B.C. companies operate the most unsafe trucks? Sorry, my request to the transportation ministry for that information has been tied up for months by the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
This absurd state of affairs continues, and worsens, not only because we the people accept it -- but because the government, too, is full of docile, obedient Canadians.
Police, prosecutors, bureaucrats and government scientists receive orders not to speak without permission about the workings of our public institutions.
With rare exceptions, they do what they're told, and keep their mouths shut.
We live under an information-control regime that rivals that of a Third World police state.
Do we get outraged?
Do we demand change?
Do we order our elected representatives and public servants to operate more transparently?
No, we boil some perogies and sit down in front of the TV, placidly chewing while democracy burns.
E-mail reporter Ethan Baron at ebaron@png.canwest.com
Ethan Baron, The Province
Published: Monday, June 09, 2008
© The Vancouver Province 2008
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