Prominent Academics Respond to the TPP (via EFF) We asked several academics to let us know their thoughts about the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). The TPP is a secretive, multi-national…
In March, Janet Merlo, a 19-year with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), filed a lawsuit against Canada’s national police force. In May, Corporal Catherine Galliford filed a claim of…
Read Jennifer Ditchburn in the Globe and Mail – Senate stubborn on making information about chamber more accessible. It is laughable about how hard the Canadian Senate makes it to…
I’ve got a piece up over on the WeGov blog at TechPresident – Is Civic Hacking Becoming ‘Our Pieces, Loosely Joined?‘ Juicy bit: There is however, a larger issue that…
In May, Corporal Catherine Galliford filed a claim of being sexually harassed by her male superiors during her 16 year career with our national police force, the Royal Canadian Mounted…
Now we know why Treasury Board President Tony Clement did not think twice before spending $50-million of G8 funds in his Muskoka riding. Why Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page threatened…
The governing body of the House of Commons continues to fail Canadians on the important questions of transparency and oversight. In his recent report, Michael Ferguson, the Auditor General of…
Nature, one of the biggest and most-read scientific journals in the world, made this call in a February 29th editorial. The journal lamented the Harper Government’s undisguised hostility to openness,…
Meet Patrick Brazeau (pictured), the sexist Canadian senator who called Ottawa-based reporter, Jennifer Ditchburn, a bitch yesterday. Her crime: she’d done her job by highlighting his poor attendance record in…
Some of you may know that I sit on the board of directors for OpenNorth – a cool little non-profit that is building tools for citizens, governments and journalists to…
The other week the Canadian Minister of the Environment, Peter Kent accused Canadian Charities of “laundering money” because they accept some funds from outside the country. This is all been…
Yesterday, Tom Slee wrote a blog post called “Why the ‘Open Data Movement’ is a Joke,” which – and I say this as a Canadian who understands the context in…
Noted in the Globe, this headline is, shall we say, a little misleading in the Canadian context: “Why don’t political bloggers want us to know who’s funding them?”The vast majority…
The other day the Canadian Government published its Action Plan on Open Government, a high level document that both lays out the Government’s goals on this file as well as…
”This isn’t about the planes, in other words, or costs, or accounting. This is about accountability. This is is about whether departments are answerable to their ministers, and whether ministers…
I’m a big believer in the ancillary benefits of a single big goal. Set a goal that has one clear objective, but as a result a bunch of other things…
Attached below is my submission to the Open Government Consultation conducted by Treasury Board over the last couple of weeks. There appear to be a remarkable number of submission that…
So I loath making this the first post of the new year, but here we go. Today Canada.com published a story “Tony Clement vows innovative new open government, but critics…
DECEMBER 12, 2011 | MEDIA RELEASE TORONTO – The Conservative government has betrayed working families in Hamilton and Nanticoke by dropping its court case against U.S. Steel despite the company’s…
Transparency Case Study: There are Good and Bad Ways Your Organization can be made “Open”
If you have not had the chance, I strongly encourage you to check out a fantastic piece of journalism in this week’s Economist on the state of the Catholic Church…