Dear Editor:
In the June 12 edition of the Ponoka News, our cherubic MP, Blaine Calkins, placed his name and picture over an article trumpeting the “Harper Government’s” passion for greater transparency in Crown corporations. As usual, the focus was on the CBC, accused of all kinds of waste and the hiding of its salaries and benefits. All of this, Calkins bellowed, “should be available to the Canadian public on demand!”
This would be completely amusing, if it weren’t so hypocritical. Calkins self-righteously lauds the government’s passion and concern in other, while manifesting the exact opposite of transparency in its own actions. This is the government, you will recall, that buries dozens of bills — many dealing with environmental concerns — in the murky depths of its regular “omnibus bills” so that most measures are passed without ever reaching the light of day or parliamentary debate.
This is also the government which, through its prime minister, is negotiating a touted Free Trade Agreement with the European Union in complete secrecy, one of whose provisions grants the right of European multinational companies to sue Canadian government departments over policies that restrict its profit taking. Laws, for example, like environmental protection laws.
Calkins writes about transparency but his government generally practices obfuscation. Obfuscation means, “to hide or confuse…to darken.” I can’t imagine a darker government than our present one, nor a more cheerful looking “shill” than Calkins. A shill, by the way, is defined as “a slick promoter…one who persuades people that black is white!”
James Strachan