No interview in Ottawa unless it has to do with the budget

Screenshot
The president of the FPJQ, Stéphane Giroux (left), as well as the lawyer of the FPJQ, Mark Banteay, during their testimony before the Commission of inquiry into the protection of the confidentiality of journalistic sources, in September.

Christopher Nardi

Saturday, 3 march, 2018 00:23

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Saturday, 3 march, 2018 00:23

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OTTAWA Is | are deemed unacceptable that federal agencies have wanted to refuse interview requests on other topics as the recent budget, because the government wanted to keep the attention of Canadians on its paper.

On Wednesday, a journalist of the Newspaper had been denied an interview with correctional Services Canada (CSC), in connection with a subject that was not in the federal budget tabled last Tuesday. By way of explanation, a spokesperson replied that they had to respect an embargo until march 9, ” because of the budget of 2018 “.

Refuse to answer

Questioned in his turn to the subject of this response, Scott Bardsley, cabinet of the minister of public Safety, said Thursday that federal departments were instructed to refuse interview requests which are not on the budget, for a period of time. They would respond, however, to questions sent by e-mail.

Is it because that the communication services are overwhelmed with requests in connection with the important document unveiled by the Trudeau government last Tuesday ? No, it is because we wanted to keep the interest of Canadians on the budget, he responded.

“It is completely unacceptable as a way of doing,” said Stéphane Giroux, president of the Fédération professionnelle des journalists du Québec (FPJQ). No government or ministry may just decide that it does not attempt to answer anything other than questions on a specific topic. “

“It is unacceptable that a department refuses to answer the questions of the journalists for any reason […] adds the president of the parliamentary press gallery (TPP) in canada, Philippe-Vincent Foisy. The press gallery would like to remind that the journalists must have access to public information, information essential for the health of our democracy. “

An error

When asked about it Thursday, the Office of the prime minister quickly indicated that this was an error of understanding, and that he never had to give orders to the departments to refuse interview requests to focus on the budget.

The spokesman for the Office, Cameron Ahmad, also emphasized that the error was limited to the departments under the responsibility of the minister of public Safety, and that they had immediately corrected the situation. As a matter of fact, CSC has contacted The Journal, Friday, to fix the interview requested.

“This is the third budget that we present and it has not changed our communication guidelines. We never want to block interview requests that are not in connection with a certain subject in the departments, ” assured Mr. Ahmad. The president of the TPP has confirmed that it had received the same answer.