This morning I read the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
Then I took two extra-strength Tylenol.
Listen, if you’ve got absolutely nothing to do this Friday night, and I mean absolutely nothing to do, then you might want to nestle into your favourite chair, choose a libation that fits the mood — none that would come to mind, unless you had several of said libation —give the dog at your feet a couple of encouraging head-pats, and dig into this document. If you felt there was nothing on television before all of this, I assure you you’ll change your mind once you start getting into it.
If you have a family member you absolutely detest but that familial protocol dictates you get them something as a stocking stuffer, print this thing out, wrap a pretty bow around it, and stick it in there. Same for office parties where there’s a Secret Santa kind of thing going on. If you got Bill from accounting, here’s your chance to really throw a f**k into his Christmas.
I now feel I’ve got a deeper appreciation for the intransigence that town staff, well some of them anyway, have for not being open with information. For showing the public the hand when the public makes a request for information. For going into closed meetings to conduct their backroom machinations away from any prying eyes that might upset their apple cart.
There are so many loopholes, false corridors, blind alleys and trap doors in this legislation that any sketch artist could find a myriad number of ways to find cover when the light of scrutiny comes calling. As I was highlighting key portions of text in the document, I quickly realized I was highlighting most everything, to the point where the non-highlighted parts took on the appearance of prominence as they stood out dramatically on pages marked in yellow.
This isn’t legislation. It’s an un-kempt hedge of brambles and thistles and things that stick to you that tells you nothing other than to put the damned thing down and walk away. Now I understand their attitude of impunity. Anyone diving into this legislation may not come back out. So if any loved ones disappear over the weekend, here’s a good first-place to look.
My goodness, I’ve made a good chunk of my adult life reading legislation, and maybe that might explain my crankiness to a degree, but still, this is absolutely brutal, to the point where it might just as well not exist at all. It’s window dressing writ large, giving the appearance of probative intent, as if this was proof your government(s) take this issue seriously.
My former grade 12 law class would rip this to shreds. Yes, they were top-notch students, but they weren’t lawyers, at least not yet, though some are getting close.
This legislation is nothing but defensive cover, a veritable Maginot Line behind which town administrators, especially those who consider themselves clever enough to take advantage of it, find comfort as they and they alone decide who gets to see/hear what.
The dictatorship of the bureaucracy on full display.
When challenged, they can bleat out the ‘requirements” foisted upon them by shoddy and poorly written legislation such as this, as if it was something Moses trotted down the mountain with. It’s the curtain they choose to hide behind. And from what I can see, the rest of us don’t know, don’t care, or just prefer to look the other way. For me, I didn’t know, I do care, and there’s no way in hell I’m looking the other way when I see stuff like this happening right in front us us while having no real candidate in sight who’s going to do or say anything about it.
I’m sorry, but I refuse to take really bad law, really bad legislation, and elevate it to the status of gospel. Legislation is people-driven and people-created. And people have failings. And sometimes those failings make it into the laws they write and pass. And sometimes they pass laws like this that are deliberately intent on making it look like there’s real guidance in place, where actually that was never their purpose at all. Again, window dressing. Make the front of the store look good to hide the fact that it’s not so good on the inside.
This was not my topic for today. I have other finished pieces that are being backed-up simply because other stuff is coming to my attention that I feel is more important, especially if it’s something of a local concern, which this is.
I read this thing this morning with all genuine diligence, not to cherry-pick it to serve any agenda I might have, but rather to simply familiarize myself with something that has a bearing on a matter that’s come up in council. I read it to better inform myself.
What makes me really mad is that I have to read it again this afternoon, and probably again tomorrow, just so I can “fully” inform myself before writing an article on the topic of freedom of information and protection of privacy. And I have another document to familiarize myself that’s going to get bumped because of this. So I’m not happy.
And this is exactly what the masters of opacity want: to discourage folks from taking any action, or making any request, or making any appeal of a denied request, simply because it’s just not worth it to go through this intentionally constructed moat that sits just outside the castle walls.
While they laugh at us. Because it works.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 