statism watch

Thomas Walkom, Toronto Star
August 9, 2008

More shakeups in the Afghan war. The New York Times reports that the U.S. has decided to merge American and NATO troops under one command. Technically, NATO would run the combined mission. But a U.S. general is already in charge of NATO forces; according, to the Times, that command structure will continue indefinitely once the two operations are merged.

For countries like Germany that place explicit restrictions on how their troops are used, the change may not mean much. But for Canada, which has no so-called caveats on combat operations, the reorganization is a different matter. U.S. officials cited in the Times say the change is designed to allow British, Canadian, Dutch and U.S. soldiers to engage in a wider range of combat operations and support one another in a more seamless fashion.

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Kelly Toughill, Toronto Star
August 9, 2008

A free press relies on two things: the ability to publish or broadcast without fear, and the ability to find and retrieve information vital to the public interest.

Canada does pretty well on the first point. Canadian journalists are only occasionally jailed, beaten or forced into financial ruin for doing their job. On the second point, we are slipping.

The federal government recently killed a database that kept track of every access to information request filed every month. The loss of the CAIRS database will not cripple journalism in this country, but it is one more sign that things are getting worse, not better, in the quest to get accurate, timely information about the issues and decisions that affect Canadian lives.

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