Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Hidden from view

I won't go into too much detail about the CBC's report on secret security measures put in place by John Baird last summer. But it's hard to see how the end result reflects anything but incompetence on Baird's part.

After all, it seems that one of the following has to be true:
- The secret measures were and are important for airport security - in which case the fact that they've gone unfunded from the beginning and have since been abandoned in practice is making Canadian air travellers less safe.
- The secret measures weren't and aren't important for airport security - in which case the fact they were implemented in the first place (and left in place since) makes for a waste of resources.
- The secret measures were important for awhile, but have since ceased to be - in which case Baird's failure to follow up and formally repeal the order has needlessly left in place a legal obligation to keep implementing it.

One way or another, the story should serve as a prime example of how much more likely government is to go wrong when it presumes it'll never have to answer for its actions - particularly since it seems like a section which was intended to be used only for immediate security concerns has been used to support an order left in place since August. And that should serve as reason both to want to get Parliament back to work ASAP, and to revisit just how much secret authority Canada's cabinet ministers actually need.

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