Last week saw a lot of controversy on the infamous Bill 50 with stories being published in several dailies about how the government, through bureaucrats, told utility companies in secret meetings “not to question” the need for new power lines.
Parallel to the publication of the story, many allegations surfaced regarding contracts awarded without a proper bidding process, “out of the blue” bonuses paid to AESO executives for turning a blind eye to the requirement for a needs assessment to construct the new power transmission infrastructure in addition to many back door dealings involving companies that will benefit from the construction project.
Several public figures, including Danielle Smith, the leader of the Wildrose Alliance Party and Joe Anglin, a dedicated grass-roots campaigner against Bill 50 asked for immediate investigations to bring out all the secretive elements of the process which has been at work since the beginning of the year.
On the federal level, the government has been dealt a severe blow by the revelations of the top military commander, who, after stalling earlier, admitted that prisoners captured by Canadian forces in Afghanistan were tortured after being handed over to Afghan police.
Gen. Walter Natynczyk, told a news conference that the information about the abuse of the prisoner was not in his possession a few days before when he testified at a parliamentary hearing.
Whether one should believe the general that he did not have in his possession information relating to an incident that happened years ago is debatable.
What is not debatable is that there is a clearly a culture of secrecy dominating the process of governance in the hands of the Progressive Conservatives at both provincial and federal levels.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s open dislike of free information flow is nothing new to report.
And although Premier Ed Stelmach has been recently using the Internet as a means of communication with provincial electorate, it does not take rocket science to conclude that what he says in his Internet messages is nothing more than an attempt to soothe the growing public discontent with the way he has been doing business since his re-election, disguised as a newly-found urge to open up to the voters.
Progressive Conservatives should be reminded that democracy is not only exercised by going to the polls every certain number of years and casting a ballot.
That much takes place even in Belarus, the former Soviet republic, which is sometimes scolded by its closest ally, Russia, for being too totalitarian.
Democracy is accountability and transparency, recognition of the right to question the governing authorities even after they have won the elections.
With G.W. Bush interpretation of democracy now dumped in the rubbish bin in the U.S, one hopes that our conservatives can take a hint.
— Mustafa Eric