Chretien's agendas make the Supreme Court's agenda
December 17, 2009 1:05 PM .
By Alison Crawford
If you're a political history buff, keep an eye on the Supreme Court of Canada in 2010. Today, the court ruled it would hear a case that could result in the release of former prime minister Jean Chretien's agendas, minutes with former national defence minister Art Eggleton as well as the itinerary of the former transport minister David Collenette. The documents cover the time period of January 1994 through to 1999.The initial complaints came from former Reform Party researcher Laurie Throness, followed by a parallel complaint from the Ottawa Citizen newspaper. Throness made six requests for Chretien's 1994-99 daytimers. When his requests were refused, he went to then-information commissioner John Reid. He sided with Throness and ordered the Privy Council Office to release the agendas. Reid also ordered the release of information from Eggleton and Collenette, as well as copies of Chretien's agendas held by the RCMP. The Mounties would have had some of that information in order to carry out the prime minister's protective detail.The PCO immediately refused to release Chretien's agendas, arguing the documents are exempt from the access to information act. At federal court, Chretien's executive assistant Bruce Hartley said the agendas contained confidential personal information. Canada's former privacy commissioner George Radwanski sided with the government. In a lengthy May 2001 letter to Reid, Radwanski wrote, "None of us wants to go through life feeling that at any moment someone may be, either metaphorically or literally, looking over our shoulder. If we have to weigh every action, every purchase, every statement, every human contact, wondering who might find out about it, judge it, misconstrue it or somehow use it to our detriment, we are not truly free. It is from this perspective that your pursuit of agendas is totally unacceptable."In defence of its decision not to release the agendas, former RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli said releasing the Mounties' copies could potentially help someone plan an attack or ambush on the prime minister's motorcade.Ever since, the cases have continued to wend their way through the courts. Despite these cases initially being kicked off by Reform Party researchers, the Conservative government has also opposed the release of agendas. And Throness is now chief of staff to Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl.The new, interim information commissioner is Suzanne Legault. She says she's pleased the Supreme Court will hear the cases."Obviously it's a recognition that these cases are of significant public importance," Legault said.At issue is whether records related to departmental business but physically located in ministers' offices are outside the scope of the access to information act. If the Information Commissioner wins, the documents would be of interest to several parties who continue to have questions about who Chretien may have met or talked to about a number of sensitive files, including the 1997 APEC summit in Vancouver, the sponsorship scandal and the so-called "Billion-dollar boondoggle" involving former HRDC minister Jane Stewart and oversight of her department's job-creation program.High-profile agendas were most recently in the news during the Oliphant inquiry earlier this year when sections of former prime minister Brian Mulroney's daytimers were made public. Except for a single page, those documents were dated after Mulroney left office.
