Indy News Canada

Carney’s own department, the Privy Council Office, has been one of the worst performers in the access to information system. In the span of about two years, the office was peppered with an extraordinary 87 legal orders to release documents after initially refusing to provide them to requesters. That’s up from zero orders in the previous three years. Little surprise, then, that bureaucrats have been quietly recommending curbs on the information commissioner’s ability to issue such orders.

Canadian readers, from the prime minister on down, may be inclined to take comfort in the US NSS on the grounds that Canada gets no real mention. Silence is golden? No talk of annexation, border security laxity, trade relations, access to critical minerals, defence spending, or the Arctic. But to take comfort would be a serious mistake.