Bill Kavanagh
VOCM reports, “Close to one-hundred people gathered to protest Bill C-29 on Confederation Hill Saturday. The rally was organized by Occupy NL to protest what they call a regressive step by government. One by one, people marched up the stairs to make speeches to the crowd.” One of the speakers was Bill Kavanagh of the St. John’s chapter of the Council of Canadians.
To see a 6-minute video of Kavanagh speaking, please go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-Sb7SBBQF4.
Last Wednesday, CBC reported, “Bill 29 expands the scope of cabinet secrecy, making whole new classes of documents off limits from public oversight… An expert on international access-to-information laws calls key changes in Bill 29 ‘breathtaking’, and says Newfoundland and Labrador will rank lower than some Third World countries (namely Mexico, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Bulgaria, Guatemala and Uganda) if the amendments pass. The CBC show On Point with David Cochrane asked the Centre for Law and Democracy to analyze the changes proposed in the bill, which is currently being filibustered by the opposition in the house of assembly. ‘The new cabinet exception is, well, breathtaking in its scope’, said Toby Mendel who runs the centre. …According to Mendel, the amendments will allow cabinet ministers to keep practically anything they want secret.”
Yesterday, CBC reported, “The hotly-disputed Bill 29 — which was the subject of a round-the-clock, four-day opposition filibuster in the house of assembly — contained 25 pages of changes to the province’s access-to-information laws. The bill passed early Friday morning, after the Tory government invoked closure to shut down debate.”
