Thursday, February 21, 2013

The PavCo FOI Paradox...Who Is Responsible For The Other 11%?

YouKeepUsingThatWord,Transparency
VizziniCountryVille


In question period on Tuesday the matter of all those Freedom of Information requests about PavCo that Bob Mackin has been filing to try and get to the bottom of that Crown Corp's billion dollar boondoggles.

Here is how things went down:

D. Routley (NDP): The Premier has made claims to open government being one of her top three priorities, even telling the media that information belongs to the public. Yet on Friday we learned that investigative journalist Bob Mackin received a letter from PavCo telling him they have applied under the Freedom of Information Act to bar him from "frivolous and vexatious" claims to information. Does the Premier agree with this outrageous act by PavCo to silence one of its chief critics?

Hon. R. Coleman (BCL; Minister Responsible for Everything): The individual that the member refers to has been making and has received some information with regards to information and privacy from PavCo. But the members opposite and the members of this House should know that he is 89 percent of all the requests of information and privacy at PavCo. It's a large volume of work, so they were finally to the point where some of it became ridiculously frivolous in their minds. They asked and they have gone forward to ask the commissioner for an opinion.


You catch that?

The mighty, all knowing, all Darth Vaderish Mr.  Rich Coleman, who is afraid to say Mr. Mackin's name out loud, admitted that yes, the Snooklandians are attempting shut down he who must not be named's ability to file such requests.

As for the other 11%?

Well, I figure at least 10.7% of them have probably come from....

This guy.


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And how is Snoodklandia's own version of Voldemort striking back?...Well....He's started up #RoofLeaks which, if it is even half as successful as #LiquorLeaks was in thwarting Darth's attempts to privatize all things booze, will very likely serve all British Columbians pretty darned well.

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9 comments:

Grant G said...

Yes indeed, the need to know..

Speaking of BC Rail..

Timing is everything..

Another law suit directly related to BC Rail, a law suit that will end up on a new Government`s desk..


http://www.250news.com/blog/view/27571/1/brink+launches+suit+against+bcr+properties

Lew said...

Seems to me that the fact Bob Mackin made 89% (or any) requests under FOI is personal information that the public body is not authorized to reveal without Mr. Mackin's consent. Pavco and its Head may have contravened the Act by revealing it.

North Van's Grumps said...

Pavco FOI applications

.3 + 10.7 + 89 = 100
anonymous + Ian Reid + Bob Mackin

Any chance of having Ian telling us how many pages he received in whole and ignore the fact that a large percentage of them are Redacted as in the results by Ian on BC Rail?

If we knew, just that one figure being provided by Ian, the public would be able to ascertain, how many Bob Mackin has received at 89%.

Maybe Bob could give us the heads up too, just to confirm that Rich Coleman is Right or Wrong, whether Coleman is an Outright Liar! Lying to the Legislative Assembly is a felony.

Open government the BC Liberal way, part whatever

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Ian

More BC Rail pages pouring out of government today – 2,968 to be precise – of which 2,963 were redacted in whole…

“Pages 1 through 1314 redacted for the following reasons: - S14

“Pages 1319 through 2968 redacted for the following reasons: – S14″

On top of a BC Rail public inquiry, I’d say there should be a complete audit of the FOI process

Lew said...

It’s obvious the vaunted MSM is not filing FOI requests on this. And they aren’t complaining that Coleman won’t talk to them about it. Which must mean that they know all the details. So why aren’t they reporting said details?

Maybe they think that would be "ridiculously frivolous"?

cfvua said...

"In their minds"??? Aren't these minions equipped with a photocopier or some electronic method of document transmittal that would satisfy these requests? Any request for information that "in my mind" should be on a wide open website for all to see. After all, nothing underhanded or offside or that might not be in the public's best interest would ever be suggested, letalone done by these shepherd's of the public purse, would it?? Snark fully on and intentional. And the excuse that "it's a large volume of work" doesn't fly as that is what paper pushers are paid for, isn't it?

RossK said...

Thanks Grant.

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Excellent point Lew - have you mentioned that over at Mr. Mackin's place?

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NVG--

I'd forgotten about that massive ream of blank paper that Ian received....It's like 25 empty 'On The Road' scrolls!

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Lew II--

I think it might also have something to do with this 'old news' is not....

News, I mean.

You hear that from them a lot.

To be fair, Sean Holman used to say the same thing to me occasionally.

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cfvua--

Speaking of Mr. Holman, he often opined on how much more open and transparent the FOI process was/is in the State of Washington...Remember, that's how he got the FOIable goods on a certain group of (not so) progressive types who were lobbying down there based on promises of access up here to various and assorted sundry five-ringed thingies n' stuff.

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RossK said...

Here's the link to one of Mr Holman's posts involving the matter mentioned above.

Lew said...

'old news' is not....'

A Bill Good mantra if ever I heard one...

At any rate, these guys don't seem to understand that there is often more "new" news in the old news they didn't report properly than there is in the "new" news they are currently glossing over. You get it; pity they don't...

RossK said...

Lew--

Very much agree with your comment regarding Mr. Good.

Back when I still listened to the Ledgie Boys, I don't know how many times I heard him say that BC Rail didn't matter because Gordon Campbell was re-elected in 2005 and 2009.

How's that for a rationale for NOT getting to the bottom of things.

But, then again, what do I know...After all, I'm just a member of a 'cult'.


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