Freedom of information...well, SOME information...Ontario-style

Getting information out of Canadian governments and their agencies has never been an easy thing. The federal government of "Call Me Steve" Harper has rightly been called the most secretive and controlling in history. But the federal Tories have their counterpart in the Ontario Liberal government of Haltin' McGuinty.

Trying to find out what's going on in Ontario's ministries, departments and crown agencies is like trying to pry state secrets out of the Kremlin. (Come to think of it, doesn't Queen's Park look a bit like the Kremlin?)

Whatever the Ontario government is doing, especially where our tax dollars are involved, they don't want us to know about it. Here we see McGuinty, flanked by the Ministers of Tourism and Finance, in conference on allegations of wrongdoing at the Niagara Parks Commission. (See "Power to the people of Niagara" in Walt's blog of October 29th.)

Thanks to pressure exerted by Preserve Our Parks (of which Agent 3 is a member), Bob Gale (a former commissioner) and Bill Windsor (a would-be business partner), the three unwise monkeys were finally coerced, earlier this year, into appointing an "independent" firm of auditors -- KPMG -- to look into the allegations of mismanagement, nepotism, favouritism and corruption.

In July, KPMG submitted a draft report. On page 3 we find this disclaimer: This draft has been prepared and is intended solely for Ministry of Tourism's internal use...and may not be edited, distributed, published, made available or relied on by any other person without KPMG's express written permission.

Presumably "any other person" includes the taxpayers who have paid 1000s of dollars for the auditors' work. Certainly the Minister, Monique Smith, was adamant in refusing to provide copies of the report or any part of it to anyone. Yes, anyone...including the MPP for Niagara Falls, Kim Craitor, who asked for a copy only to be told it was confidential and he couldn't see it. And hey, Craitor sits on the same side of the house as Minister Smith!

So steamed was Kim that he threatened to make an official request under the FIPPA, Ontario's freedom of information law. While he fumed, investigative reporter Anthony Reinhart of the Globe and Mail actually made the request, and was rewarded with a heavily redacted [censored! ed.] version of the "draft" report.

Reinhart's story, "Probe uncovers ethical breaches at Niagara Parks Commission", includes links to the KPMG report as well as the Ontario government's internal auditors' report into the NPCs procurement procedures...or lack thereof.

The text of the KPMG report takes up 48 pages. Check it out and you'll see that no fewer than 14 pages have been crudely deleted, apparently with bits of white paper being stuck over the naughty bits. Two pages (34 and 48) are left entirely blank.

Whatever damning facts or recommendations could they contain? Hint: the censored parts often occur just before or after references to "the Chairman". That would be NPC Chairman Jim Williams, who had the gall to boast in an "interview" apparently dictated to the Niagara Falls Review's cub reporter that he had been exonerated by the KPMG audit.

Is that right, Jim? Then perhaps you could let us have a look at your copy of the KPMG report...the whole thing, that is, with the coverup post-it notes removed.

While we wait, we take a little comfort in being at least somewhat enlightened. Somewhat. Sort of. In a typical half-assed Ontario way. The public's right to know? In Ontario? LMAO.