Premier Christy Clark apologizes

[Sapper]

Guess the former NDP goverment should have done so much more "off the record" so it couldn't be traced huh?

http://www.cbc.ca/ne...rk.html?cmp=rss

Privacy commissioner slams premier's office record-keeping

Christy Clark's office fails to find records for 45 per cent of FOI requests

CBC News

Posted: Mar 4, 2013 1:52 PM PT

Last Updated: Mar 5, 2013 5:51 AM PT

RAW: Government secrecy does not work2:59

B.C. Liberals leaving fewer paper trails2:27

B.C.'s Information and Privacy Commissioner is raising concerns about the lack of record-keeping by Premier Christy Clark's office after surge in the number of Freedom of Information requests that found no documentation on key decisions.

Commissioner Elizabeth Denham says the complete lack of any kind of paper trail related to former chief of staff Ken Boessenkool's resignation is just one of several cases where no government records are found in response to requests for information.

Boessenkool was asked to step down by Clark last September for undisclosed "inappropriate behavior" involving a female government staff member at a golf tournament.

Denham also confirmed her investigators have spoken with the premier's former deputy chief of staff Kim Haakstaad.

According to the report, Haakstaad told Denham's investigators the general practice in the premier's office is to communicate verbally and that email is used for only "transitory" communication like requests to make telephone calls or meet in person.

Haakstaad was forced to resign just last week over a highly controversial leaked memo laying out the government's strategy to win over "ethnic" voters forwarded from her Gmail account, which continues to raise serious trouble for Clark in the lead up to the May provincial election.

In the report released on Monday, Denham called for changes to the province's freedom of information laws to ensure the government documents its key actions.

"A citizen's right to access government records is a fundamental element of our democracy. The right to know promotes transparency in the public policy process, and is an essential mechanism for holding government to account," said Denham.

"In the course of my investigation, we have seen evidence of the practice of oral government, where business is undertaken verbally and in a records-free way. There is currently no requirement to document these activities. However, without a duty to document, government can effectively avoid disclosure and public scrutiny as to the basis and reasons for its actions."

Denham launched the investigation in response to a complaint by the Freedom of Information and Privacy Association alleging significant growth in "no responsive records" replies by the government over the last 10 years.

She found the premier's office fail to find records for 45 per cent of FOI request, the highest level of any government department.

[Sapper]

and further

http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/editorials/Editorial+Liberal+government+ethnic+memo+trail+needs/8059746/story.html

From that article

"It’s also notable that government employees were using their private email addresses. While it’s possible that they did so because of a respect for the line between government and party business, the fact that they were so blithely mixing the two suggests they wanted to be invisible to any legitimate access to information requests."

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Editorial+Liberal+government+ethnic+memo+trail+needs+full+airing/8059746/story.html#ixzz2MqKpbIYm

[Wetcoaster]

Guess the former NDP goverment should have done so much more "off the record" so it couldn't be traced huh?

[Salmonberries]

I really hate her... Very very much.

[Lockout Casualty]

They did and they were well-known for it. Under Adrian Dix it was an art form.

As Vaughn Palmer has noted in the past when Adrian Dix ran Premier Glen Clark's office he was well-known for leaving no paper trails with nothing written down which was why when he was waving the fake memo around it seemed strange.

In the darkest hour of his political life, Clark fell back on Dix. The police had raided his home. He stood accused of favouring a friend's application for a casino licence. And there was Clark, brandishing a memo over Dix's signature, saying the premier had ordered him to ensure he was insulated from the licensing decision.

The notorious memo to file. Only later did it come out that the document was in several respects bogus. Typed up months after the order was supposedly given. False dated by Dix himself, who wound back the premier's official date stamp with all the craft of a used-car dealer tackling an odometer.

The ironical thing was that Dix was done in by a fraudulent piece of paper something he strove to avoid creating as it was a fraudulent memo that forced Dix to resign. Mind you only after the RCMP Forensic department examined Dix's and determined that the dates did not match up.

During all the BC Hydro meetings during which the Raiwind power scam was hatched by NDP insider and BC Hydro President John Laxton, Dix was there but claimed he had no written records of any of the meetings.

The Raiwind power project was an ill-fated partnership-cum-offshore tax dodge involving BC Hydro and a dubious operator in Pakistan. When news of it broke on the eve of the 1996 election, Clark fired the NDP-appointed Hydro chair John Laxton and later president John Sheehan as well.

Both would later testify that Dix, acting as Clark's eyes and ears, had attended most of the Hydro board meetings where the partnership was discussed and approved.

As Palmer noted Dix did the same thing when he was illegally managing the recall campaigns for three NDP MLAs. The idea was to do everything face to face or by telephone with nothing written down. Dix was only caught out when an NDP field operative blew the whistle:

Dix put together what proved to be a successful effort to quash the recallers, lining up support and resources from NDP headquarters and the trade union movement.

He did most of this by phone, though twice he visited the key battleground of Prince George at his own expense. He also persuaded government staffers to go into the field on their own time, while facilitating an arrangement that saw the labour movement quietly cover several thousand dollars' worth of travel expenses.

All this had to be done on the sly. The NDP-authored recall legislation imposed strict spending limits. And the NDP line was that local MLAs were unfairly targeted by dark forces -- "outsiders, special interests, lobby groups" -- from beyond their ridings.

Accordingly, Clark denied the role of his own office in stage-managing the fight. "Mr. Dix has a job in Victoria," he told the legislature. "He was not involved in the recall campaigns in those ridings."

Only after an NDP field operative blew the whistle to the news media did the truth come out. "I had quite a bit of involvement," Dix conceded.

So for Dix and the NDP to act scandalized in light of their admitted past history of avoiding a paper trail is quite laughable.

[hockeyfan87]

If CDC had a nickle for every time you posted the same diatribe, CDC could afford new servers AND new hats.

[Sapper]

Its the right wing's way of attempting to deflect any and all news away from them. Yes Dix got busted for the file - He has admitted it. But it is irrisponsible to defend someone else's behavior as acceptable because someone before them did it.

Past pratice excuses only work in administrative practises and not with the application of the law. If someone gets busted for doing 90 in a 50km zone they simply could not win in court using the arguement that a decade or so before someone else speed at the same speed or higher hence they should not be held accountable .... No wonder kids these days have an entitled sense of behavior. The Right wing seem to be wanted to send a message that since someone before them did wrong - until they do worse ( in their opinion ) they should be held to a lesser standard or none at all. It really is a shame that right wing goverments get such a free ride in the press - they should have the same heat applied to them as any other party and no reasonable person could with a straight face say they do.

[inane]

Its the right wing's way of attempting to deflect any and all news away from them. Yes Dix got busted for the file - He has admitted it. But it is irrisponsible to defend someone else's behavior as acceptable because someone before them did it.

Past pratice excuses only work in administrative practises and not with the application of the law. If someone gets busted for doing 90 in a 50km zone they simply could not win in court using the arguement that a decade or so before someone else speed at the same speed or higher hence they should not be held accountable .... No wonder kids these days have an entitled sense of behavior. The Right wing seem to be wanted to send a message that since someone before them did wrong - until they do worse ( in their opinion ) they should be held to a lesser standard or none at all. It really is a shame that right wing goverments get such a free ride in the press - they should have the same heat applied to them as any other party and no reasonable person could with a straight face say they do.

[Lockout Casualty]

It will never be enough when the stupid people of British Columbia are about to elect as Premier someone who denigrated the office and should have been sent to jail. I don't support Christy Clark either.

[Wetcoaster]

If CDC had a nickle for every time you posted the same diatribe, CDC could afford new servers AND new hats.

[inane]

You have problems with facts it seems.

[Wetcoaster]

?

It's not the content of your post, it's the fact that you spam it repeatedly in threads that aren't about Dix.

[Langdon Algur]

To quote a radio ad I heard this morning, "Who would do such a thing?!"

[inane]

This is a lesson that bears constant repeating since it seems many are unaware, uninformed and/or ignorant of these events as evidenced by the post to which I responded.

[Sapper]

This is a lesson that bears constant repeating since it seems many are unaware, uninformed and/or ignorant of these events as evidenced by the post to which I responded.

[Wetcoaster]

That is an incorrect statement. We have seen what you have posted and I have yet to see someone challenge the memo or Mr Dix's involvement.

What you are in fact saying is that because others do not see it your way you feel compelled to call them uniformed and ignorant.

That is opinion and your certianly entitled to yours as others are of theirs. I do not consider you ignorant or uniformed simply because you have a different opinion. And the fact that others don't share your opinion gives you zero right to demean them by implying the are ignorant and must be educated. In a free and democratic country every is entitled to an opinion - right or wrong.

[Langdon Algur]

So, given this rich history, does Clark's government deserve to be called scandal-plagued?

Hardly.

http://www.vancouver...l#ixzz2MqBL7PoM

[Sapper]

You have problems with facts it seems.

[Sapper]

Given it was your post to which I responded - it seems that you have failed to note take heed of the lesson in the past.

[Common sense]

Y'know, iwtl, if you feel Wetcoaster is spamming this thread with Adrian Dix-related stuff, report it to a mod instead of whining about it in consecutive posts.

edit: or, as an allusion to your status update, "ignore function really does make forum surfing a more pleasurable experience " - you might want to use it.