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Suzanne Legault, Information Commissioner of Canada, isn't impressed with the Liberal record so far. Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS

For the second year in a row, a Canadian prime minister attended the annual parliamentary press gallery dinner, and for the second year in a row, Justin Trudeau was charming and funny. Clearly, the man is accessible, in contrast to the previous prime minister, who avoided such events with fierce determination.

But as with many things Trudeau, symbolic shows of openness havent entirely been matched by the actions of his no-longer-new government. Days after the merriment among journalists and their political guests, Canadas information commissioner released her annual report on government accessibility and its as grim as it was under that last prime minister.

Suzanne Legault talks of the hopeful tone that accompanied the election of the Liberals in late 2015. Promises to unlock government that is, actually share information in a reasonable manner with taxpayers abounded early among the Trudeau team, and ministerial mandate letters urged openness from federal departments. Treasury Board president Scott Brison even put out a directive saying federal agencies should be open by default. But, concludes Legault in her new report, The year is ending with a shadow of disinterest on behalf of the government.

Our investigations reveal, once again, that the (Access to Information) Act is being used as a shield against transparency and is failing to meet its policy objective to foster accountability and trust in our government. She notes the ongoing culture of secrecy within the public service, adding that the Clerk of the Privy Council, the highest ranking bureaucrat, has given his troops no direction on transparency.

Why should Canadians care? After all, in the shadow of the Trump administrations perpetual crises, or the mess that faces Britons, Canadas chronic case of bureaucratic sphincter-tightening and childish government message control seem minor problems.

Theyre not. Youre entitled to a full accounting of how your tax dollars are used and so are businesses, academics, artists, scientists, homemakers and anyone who uses the federal Access to Information Act to try to pry loose information we should, frankly, all be able to get just by asking for it. Instead, the access law is repeatedly abused, with Orwellian glee, to withhold answers from Canadians.

For instance, Legaults office investigated the deletion of emails by an employee at Shared Services Canada. That agency, you may recall, has run into all manner of trouble trying to update the governments IT systems, while spending vast swaths of your money. Under the information act, the agency got a request for all SSC emails that mentioned the Liberal party since it had taken office. An employee duly forward 12 pages for processing, but it turned out that almost 400 pages of emails were deleted after the agency received the formal request for the information. That sounds like someone breaking the law, and the case had gone to the attorney general.

In another instance, the RCMP was asked, using the access act, for communications around its decision not to conduct a perjury probe of one of the officers who testified before a commission on the death of Robert Dziekanski, the Polish immigrant who was tasered and died at Vancouver Airport in 2007. The information commissioners investigation of why no records were released to the person requesting them turned up the amazing discovery that the RCMP didnt have any. This is a serious gap in the historical record of a tragic case that has a high level of public interest, a gap that raises accountability issues within the RCMP, Legaults report notes.

The lapses go on: lags in making information available about SNC-Lavalins overbillings of government, for instance; problems with Canada Post not explaining why some people arent getting their mail; the refusal by a government agency to release a harmless map; even attempts to withhold historical documents from 1918 by Library and Archives Canada.

Legaults data show things are not improving under the Liberals. The prime minister may be good at dinner speeches that make him look accessible. But real action on transparency? Not so much.

Christina Spencer is the Citizens editorial pages editor.

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Spencer: So much for more open government under the Liberals - Ottawa Citizen

Polls open at 7 a.m. Tuesday in the Point Douglas provincial byelection that's critical to the NDP's hope of rebuilding.

The polls close at 8 p.m. in an inner-city riding that has long been an NDP stronghold.

That was then, but is it now?

Last time around, former cabinet minister Kevin Chief won 57.1 per cent of the vote, but less than eight months later he gave up the seat and joined the private sector, leaving the New Democrats with only 12 seats and denying the party a respected member who had widely been expected to be a frontrunner for the NDP's leadership.

Point Douglas had one of Manitoba's lowest voter turnouts at 42.5 per cent, and byelection voter turnout has traditionally been exceptionally low, especially when no other office is on the ballot, but all three major parties have been running well-backed and bitter campaigns.

Bernadette Smith, a longtime community activist and educator, is running for the NDP. Smith co-foundedthe Manitoba Coalition of Families of Missing and Murdered Women her sister Claudette Osborne has been missing for nine years.

The Liberals finished a distant second in Point Douglas last year, but winning the riding would give the three-member Liberal caucus party status in the legislature; they're running John Cacayuran, a former civil servant now working for Liberal MP MaryAnn Mihychuk. The Progressive Conservative party hasfielded electrician and business owner Jodi Moskal, who would be a welcome addition to a caucus that has only eight women among its 40 members.

Also running are Sabrina Koehn Binesi for the Greens, Communist Frank Komarniski, and Manitoba Party's Gary Marshall.

Complaints and allegations of election violations have been flying. The NDP accused the Tory government of continuing to tout government programs after the writ dropped, the Conservatives say that New Democrat MLAs have been improperly hanging out and possibly campaigning at advance polling stations, and the NDP has accused the Liberals of paying people to remove NDP signs.

Elections Manitoba said Monday the commissioner of elections has up to a year to decide whether to launch an investigation.There is no specific time period for an investigation to be completed or a determination made.

Full details on who is eligible to vote, where to vote and how to vote if you're not on the voters' list, are available at http://www.electionsmanitoba.ca.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca

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Point Douglas byelection critical for NDP, important to Liberals - Winnipeg Free Press

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Judicial recounts have been completed for the Nova Scotia election, confirming the Liberals slim majority.

The Liberals have confirmed their majority with the final judicial recount on Monday declaring Liberal candidate Hugh MacKay as the MLA-elect for Chester-St. Margarets.

The riding was one of five that kept the final result of the election whether the Liberals would maintain their majority or have a minority in doubt until the early hours of the morning. The NDP filed for a recount after MacKay won against NDP incumbent Denise Peterson-Rafuse by 90 votes.

READ MORE:Nova Scotia election: Heres what Stephen McNeils Liberals have promised

According to Elections Nova Scotia, the recount saw Peterson-Rafuse lose one vote, bringing the total votes separating the two to 91.

Well were very pleased that it confirmed the choice by the voters of Chester-St. Margarets, MacKay told Global News in a phone interview. And [were] very glad that it did not significantly change things because I think both this recount and the two that were done on Friday resulting in a change of only two votes really does demonstrate that the process thats implemented by Elections Nova Scotia is sound.

MacKay, the founder and director of Doors Open Halifax, caused a surprise upset on election night when he unseated the two-term NDP MLA and former cabinet minister. Peterson-Rafuse served as community services minister under the NDP government and was re-elected in 2013, though lost her cabinet post when the Liberals formed government.

Peterson-Rafuse was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2016 and took a leave from the legislature, but returned that fall.

Global News reached out for comment from Peterson-Rafuse but did not receive a response by end of day.

Asked what was next with his election confirmed, MacKay jokingly said hed read the manual on how to be an effective MLA to represent his riding.

He also said he looked forward to getting to work in the legislature.

Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice James L. Chipman certified the statement of polls summaries and declared MacKay to be elected.

Last Friday, two other recounts in Guysborough-Eastern Shore-Tracadie and Waverley-Fall River-Beaver Bank declared Liberal incumbents Lloyd Hines and Bill Horne, respectively, as elected in their ridings. Both also won on election night by slim margins against the Progressive Conservatives, who then filed for recounts.

READ MORE:Nova Scotia election: How the results impact each partys bottom line

With the recounts confirming all three Liberal wins, the party has 27 seats in the legislature. Twenty-six were needed for a majority.

2017Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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Nova Scotia Liberals maintain slim majority after recounts in 3 ridings - Globalnews.ca

The outrage over Trumps rejection of the Paris accord raises a number of issues.

1. There is a distinction between three types of opinions. There are our personal and social biases.

Chocolate ice cream may be preferable to vanilla. There are scientific opinions which are generally created by research or the conclusion of mathematical manipulation. Then there are opinions that might be called religious. A person may say, I have never seen an angel, and you have never seen an angel, but I believe angels exist.

As demonstrated by the climate change debate, it is easy for scientific opinion to become doctrinaire and begin to fall into the religious category.

When a person or organization picks out individuals who do not appear doctrinally pure and charges them with being unscientific or science deniers, then you know you are not only dealing with ignorance, but those making the accusation are doing so in a mindset indistinguishable from religious fervor.

2. Science and politics dont mix well. Carl Popper claimed mixing the two created something akin to astrology. This is especially true when politicians are out in front of the movement followed by a mass of true believers, with scientists bringing up the rear.

The political solution to climate change demands one of the largest transfers of wealth in human history. Where do you think it will go? Of course, you already know the answer to that. How much difference in climate change will be experienced by the hundreds of millions of small people sacrificing to pay the bills? The scientists have told us we shouldnt expect much. The priests of the new religious orders have already decreed that because of our environmental sins, we are all going to a purgatory that looks remarkably like Beijing. The last time we checked, Beijing may or may not abide by the Paris accord, at least in the near future.

3. The ruling elites who were defeated last election were banking on climate change doctrine to fulfill several essential functions. It creates a religious-type motivation that unifies their rank-and-file followers. It is a cause that can be used to consolidate wealth, power and influence. Think of Al Gore if an example is necessary. And last, but certainly not least, it is an issue that can successfully be used to defeat and maybe even destroy their enemies.

Losing power creates a temper tantrum, but for the true believers marginalizing the elites ability to manipulate the apparatus of climate change creates an existential crisis.

4. Will the left now see the wisdom of not having an all-powerful president with pen and a phone? When they are in power, they act like nothing could be finer than a president who can do anything he wants as if he ruled some banana republic. But Trump has demonstrated they are not always in control, and what one president can do, another can also do.

Having constitutional restraints on power is a very, very good idea.

Dennis Clayson is a marketing professor at the University of Northern Iowa.

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Liberals' climate hysteria - Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier

Toronto Sun

Wynne's Liberals have lost touch with reality Toronto Sun Never mind that while the Liberals boast about having invested billions of dollars upgrading the province's electricity system, Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk, another independent, non-partisan, spending watchdog, said in her 2015 annual report that ...

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Wynne's Liberals have lost touch with reality - Toronto Sun