If you file a freedom of information request for “Legislature Halloween Horror Stories,” you’ll get nothing back. Guaranteed.
But if you file it to me (for free), you’ll get a treasure trove of spooky tales that will send shivers of terror down your spine. Ironically, most of them are about information and privacy law changes the NDP government is enacting.
Here’s a sampling. (Trigger warning: May cause alarm to fans of open government.)
• Once upon a time a nice lady — let’s call her Citizens’ Services Minister Lisa Beare — got elected and named to cabinet, responsible for information and privacy. Her “first call after I was made minister” was to the independent commissioner who oversees that realm. That sounds like the start of a beautiful friendship.
Her very first call! The commissioner likely felt honoured. They had some nice meetings and were getting along great.
Then she wrote a ghastly horror story in the form of a bill (two days before a full moon, it should be noted) that was full of witchcraft that spells doom for people who use that law to learn what government is doing.
And get this — it ignored most of what he told her in all their meetings. He wrote her with hurt feelings, saying her bill was “baffling.” So she ghosted him. She hasn’t replied and won’t bother until the bill is passed.
Worst. Breakup. Ever.
• The Opposition in the Belleville Street Crypt was so appalled, it moved a motion to postpone the bill. In most horror stories, someone would put a hex on them. But this time, someone put Beare and everyone on her team into a coma! They didn’t say a word for two days. Mute zombies sat frozen in chairs, waiting for the anguished Opposition to talk themselves out. It was like Night of the Living Dead. It has never happened before. It was profoundly spooky.
• The minister admitted this week that she started work on this nightmare in July. But that was around the time a special committee met to get ready to review the entire body of FOI law. So she secretly undercut a committee by doing something that it was supposed to do. It’s like shooting yourself in the foot and then taking a firearms course. All backward is the process.
• The suspense in this horror story has people on the edge of their chairs, waiting to see what happens next. Particularly to Green Party MLA Adam Olsen. While discussing the bill Thursday, in five minutes he went from “irritated,” to “outraged” to “infuriated.”
There are still weeks to go. People are terrified to find what comes after “infuriated.”
Don’t trick or treat his house. You’ll be taking your life in your hands.
Just So You Know: Discussing personal health problems is one of the toughest duties a political leader has to handle. Premier John Horgan did the job well this week, revealing that he’s getting treatment for a lump on his throat. There was encouraging word after surgery Friday.
Most people with concerning medical situations get to deal with them privately. But Horgan had to stand up at a news conference and reveal it, then discuss some of the implications. There’s no clear line as to when politicians have an obligation to divulge, but he chose to do so relatively early.
“This is a small town … I’ve been in and out of hospitals for the past number of weeks and I’ll be staying overnight as a result of this surgery and that type of information just doesn’t stay quiet.”
He was forthright, confident and matter of fact. Those are good qualities. Here’s hoping they help get him through this issue.
On the same topic, NDP MLA Pam Alexis stood in the house an hour before the premier’s disclosure and told a harrowing tale. She was on a grinding tour of pre-budget hearings last month with a committee and felt unwell. She tried to push through, but other MLAs intervened and she wound up being rushed to hospital with a rare bilateral stroke. “I’m very lucky not to have died.”
Quick response was the main factor, as with all strokes.
Alexis gave special thanks to NDP MLA Harwinder Sandhu of Vernon. “She did the best possible thing when I told her I was fine: She ignored me and quickly got help.”
lleyne@timescolonist.com
