Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Monday, March 05, 2012

iPolitics analysis: Behind closed doors? Committee secrecy varies widely

The opposition points fingers at the Conservatives. The Conservatives point fingers at previous Liberal governments. They each accuse the other of fostering a culture of secrecy that takes committee meetings in camera and leaves Canadians to wonder what is going on behind closed doors.

iPolitics set out to cut through the rhetoric and find out who was right.

An analysis of 920 committee meetings and more than 85,000 minutes of committee proceedings during the current Parliament and and equivalent period in 2003 during the last Liberal majority government reveals just which era has been the most secretive when it comes to Parliament’s standing committees.

A marked shift in recent weeks risks further undermining Canadians’ right to know what their MPs are doing.

There is also a wide range when it comes to secrecy. While one of the current committees has closed its doors to the public less than 2 per cent of the time, another has now spent 62.7 per cent of its time in camera. In some cases the watchdog committees charged with keeping an eye on Parliament are the ones spending the most time cloistered away from view.

We also look at how today’s committees compare to those in 2003 when it comes to how much work they get done – how many studies they undertake, how many reports they table and how many witnesses they hear. One committee outstrips all the others when it comes to being the hardest-working committee.

You might be surprised which one. Click here for more. 

Original Article
Source: ipolitics
Author: Elizabeth Thompson

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