Bar Association proves it is political front

The Canadian Bar Association is one of those groups that people assume is above politics.

Hah!

The CBA, like many groups, is highly political and today they proved it once again by calling for MPs on the Access to Info Committee to back off in their quest to look into CBC’s refusal to abide by the law.

“The committee should cease its hearings on this matter until the courts have issued a final ruling,” said Fred Headon of Montreal, second vice-president of the association.

“Members of Parliament must respect this important legal principle. The committee would be well advised to await the outcome of the judicial proceedings before continuing its deliberations.”

Now what is interesting is that the Bar Association wanted the Harper government to repatriate Omar Khadr from Guantanamo before his trial was over and they supported the release of Taliban prisoner docs even though those were before a judicial process at the Military Police Complaints Commission.

In fact if we followed the flawed thinking of Mr. Headon and his colleagues at the CBA then there would never be any laws up for reconsideration that might also be before the courts.

Bill C-4 dealing with human smuggling is directly related to the MV Sun Sea and the 492 people that came aboard that ship. Some of those people are still before the immigration and refugee board others will be before the Federal Court. Shall we scrap that bill until there are no cases of a similar nature? 

Bill C-19 seeks to scrap the long gun registry, some cases before the courts include material drawn from the gun registry. Shall the government wait until there are no cases involving the gun registry before moving forward?

The fact is that Parliament moves on legislation that is before the courts all the time. How can it reasonably be argued that MPs should be able to see documents about Taliban prisoner transfers or the Libyan mission while it is still happening but that they cannot see documents about CBC. And just for the record, the documents before the court have nothing to do with journalistic sources. 

Here once again is a list of ATIP cases before the court in the battle between CBC and the federal information commissioner.

• Provide copy of the audits of last three Olympics performed by Deloitte Touche or equivalent auditing organizations

• Provide copy of all records concerning the handover of the position of the CEO from Mr. Robert Rabinovitch to Mr. Hubert T. Lacroix

• Statutory fees paid by CBC for the submission of ATI requests. Provide a copy of records indicating the amount of fees paid pursuant to the federal access to information statute during Fiscal Year 2007-2008

• We wish to have access to or a copy of all and/or any records regarding spending by CBC on advertising in the greater Montreal area. Specifically advertising in the form of visual media, ie. Billboards, print ads, buses, etc

• Presentation of France’s Legion d’Honneur to Sylvain Lafrance on July 4, 2007. Provide copy of all records associated with the presentation of France’s Legion d’Honneur to Sylvain Lafrance, including copy of the following:  Exchanges between Sylvain Lafrance and a) the President b) the board of Directors concerning acceptance by Sylvain Lafrance of this foreign honour in his capacity as a CBC senior executive; Any Travel Expenses Reports and Claims submitted by or on behalf of Sylvain Lafrance for travel/accommodation in Ottawa to accept his private honour

• Obtenir copie de tout document montrant tous les coûts dépensés et engendrés par Radio-Canada pour produire l’émission Le Clubs des Ex animée par Simon Durivage sur Radio-Canada en semaine et ce depuis le début de cette émission sur Radio-Canada à aujourd’hui 20 mars 2008

• Obtenir copie aussi de tout document ou sommaire montrant les coûts pour produire l’émission et également les montants accordés à Liza Frulla, Jean-Pierre Charbonneau et Marie Grégoire et ce depuis le début de cette émission à aujourd’hui 20 mars 2008

• Olympic bids. Provide access to or a copy of any and all records pertaining to the bid made by and/or to the CBC with respect to the 2010 and 2012 Olympic Games

• Provide one copy of records detailing the amounts paid in Royalties, broken down between CBC (1. Television 2. Radio) SRC (3. Television 4. Radio) for FY 2006-2007. Provide records detailing the identities of those who received such royalties from CBC/SRC

• Application to CRTC re Sports Specialty Channel. Provide records (internal to CBC) concerning the CBC’s application to the CRTC to approve a new CBC sports specialty channel

• Theme song. Hockey Night in Canada. Provide records on the cost of running the contest to find the new Hockey Night in Canada theme song

• Splitting of CBC News organization. Provide the CBC backgrounder on the changes to CBC News being split into Programming and Newsgathering divisions as shared on the iO, CBC’s intranet

• Obtenir copie complet de tous (livrables inclus) de tout les focus groupes de Radio-Canada au sujet des stars de sa television ou encore vedette de l’information comme par example Céline Galipeau, Guy A. Lepage, Patrice Roy, Bernard Deromes, Michel Viens, Simon Durivages, etc… et ce depuis le 1er janvier 2006 à aujourd’hui, le 12 juin 2008. Obtenir aussi copie de tous les coûts de ces focus groupes réalisé au sujet de stars de sa télévision ou encore vedette de l’information comme par example Céline Galipeau, Guy A. Lepage, Patrice Roy, Bernard Deromes, Michel Viens, Simon Durivages, etc…  et ce depuis le 1er janvier 2006

• Obtenir copie de tout document montrant les montants en cachet ($) donnée aux gens qui participent aux emissions d’actualité à Radio-Canada et ce pour chacune des années de 1998 à aujourd’hui, le 17 juin 2008

• Agreement between SRD/GESCA to create Voilà. Provide copy of records by which in 2001, SRC entered into a partnership agreement with GESCA Inc. to create the magazine Voilà

• We wish to have access to or a copy of all and/or any records regarding conraces made by CC for advertising in the greater Montreal area. Specifically, advertising in the form of visual media, ie. Billboards, print ads, buses, etc

• We wish to have access to or a copy of all and/or any records regarding spending by CBC for advertising in the greater Montreal area to promote Patrice Roy as a new anchor on Téléjournal Montréal