Editor:
Re: “Goldsmith-Jones blows away Weston as Trudeau leads Liberals to majority,” Coast Reporter, Oct. 23.
John Weston is to be commended for his “unprecedented” and “unorthodox” move to transfer constituency files (with the permission of constituents) to our new Liberal MP Pamela Goldsmith-Jones. Weston’s decision is honourable, but it is truly unfortunate that his action is considered a break with the default action of automatically shredding records during the transition to a new government.
Governments across Canada – at all levels – are bound by law to make available the records of their actions and decisions. But as we have seen most recently with the debacle of “triple-deleted” emails by provincial government officials, this is a requirement that, to quote Shakespeare’s Hamlet, is more honoured in the breach than in the observance.
Citizens should be able to expect that government representatives will manage information effectively. This means that government officials should be required to: (1) make accurate and complete records of important decisions, opinions, and actions; (2) keep those records safe for as long as they are needed, whether that is a week or a century; and (3) make those records available for review whenever required, while respecting an individual’s right to privacy.
The only way we, as citizens, can truly scrutinize the work of our government representatives is by accessing the documentary evidence of their work. Let us hope that our new federal Liberal government will uphold its responsibility – which is enshrined in law – to create, keep, and make available records of its actions and decisions. And let us not forget our responsibility as citizens to hold our governments to account. We must not hesitate to ask for access to government records whenever we feel we need to understand or critique government actions. We must remain eternally vigilant.
Laura Millar, Roberts Creek
