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John Ibbitson, The Globe and Mail's Ottawa bureau chief, writes in his column Wednesday that: "A raft of confrontations is pitting the federal government, the military and Ontario's provincial police against opposition parties, the media, interest groups and inquiries over when politicians and bureaucrats can withhold information from the public.

"Both sides realize that control over information is the only control that matters. Those with power seek to preserve that power by managing the flow of information; others wrestle to bring it into the public square."

In addition, Mr. Ibbitson notes that diplomat Richard Colvin testified about the government's willful blindness of alleged torture of Afghan detainees, the government refuses to say why the Prime Minister called in the police after dismissing Helena Guergis from cabinet and the Supreme Court is wrestling with the right of obtaining information from government.

Mr. Ibbitson joined us earlier for an online discussion on this troubling trend.

Mr. Ibbitson graduated from the University of Western Ontario with a master's degree in journalism and joined The Ottawa Citizen. He worked as a reporter, columnist and Queen's Park correspondent for Southam papers until 1999, when he joined The Globe and Mail as Queen's Park columnist, subsequently serving as the paper's Washington bureau chief, then as its Canadian political affairs columnist, based in Ottawa. Outside journalism, his recent writing has focused on political analysis, with Open and Shut: Why America has Barack Obama and Canada has Stephen Harper (McClelland & Stewart, 2009), Loyal No More: Ontario's Struggle for a Separate Destiny (HarperCollins, 2001) and Promised Land: Inside the Mike Harris Revolution (Prentice Hall, 1997).

To view the discussion, please click on the replay button in the grey box below:



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