The primary task of my day job is to ask questions. It’s a difficult task on some days, and nearly impossible on others. Curiosity can be an occupational hazard. Ask the right question, and a simple answer leads to a lot of work on my end, and results in an informed public.
When I am on the hunt for answers, I like taking a question and throwing it to as many people who may be “in the know” as possible. That tactic often provides great insight into the organization or group the questions are asked of. Who answers first? How long does it take to get answers? If you get answers from two or more different people, are they the same response or did they not get their stories straight before hitting the send button?
I find it entertaining reading a response from a person who is directly involved in an issue, and comparing it to the response from the communications person who has made a response that is politically-correct and devoid of critical information. It’s great fun.
When I can’t get an answer from anyone, there are tools I can use like Access To Information and Privacy inquiries (federal) and the provincial/municipal equivalents. Grabbing a stepladder and going over people’s heads is also frustratingly fun. I think that those on the other side are trying to have their fun too – trying to devise new ways of frustrating the media from doing their jobs. I can’t think of another reason why some of the recent media changes I and other journalists have experienced would have been put in place otherwise.
For the last three years, asking any form of questions to a local provincial crown agency requires the local people to run their responses up the labyrinth of managers and mandarins to the supervising provincial minister’s office for approval. Even for simple questions like “how many people attended” should be an easy question to answer. Nope.
This multi-layered bureaucratic bovine by-product is designed to slow down reporting – adding frustration to a journalist’s job. I can only guess that this is in the hopes that journalists get tired and frustrated, not getting an answer, and just move on.
Another local-ish example is the recent attempt by the City of Cornwall administration to muzzle its own council’s ability to talk to the public. Imagine that, a councillor or mayor couldn’t talk to the media without permission from a civil servant. Who exactly works for whom anymore?
Rightfully so, that council opposed the restriction swiftly with one councillor – Dean Hollingsworth – going as far as saying it violated his Charter rights to free speech. Good. What’s next, having to get permission from an administrator to use the washroom?
In not-so-nearby Sudbury, Ontario, there is a similar policy on the books which muzzles or micromanages media and council. Journalist Tyler Clarke with Sudbury.com wrote recently that the media could not even approach elected officials after a meeting. Instead, reporters had to go to a designated “holding area” and request to speak to specific council members, who will appear after. I assume this corporate policy came with a shovel for the additional bovine by-product too?
In both Cornwall and Sudbury – any reporter who wants to talk to city staff must go through the media department. Need clarification of a piece of information? You get to play the media waiting game. Of course, this bureaucratic filtering process helps keep the administrative mandarins and staff away from the prying eyes of reporters. The media message must be protected at all costs – even if a keen reporter is asking how much a bolt costs(!)
Back to Cornwall. It’s interesting that staff was using pre-approved delegated authority by council. That sounds complex, so I will simplify it – council has approved that staff can make some decisions without having to run them by council in the future. A pre-approved blanket “do what you want, you know best” policy. No chance of that backfiring, right?
It’s a fun game – or maybe it’s a stupid game – when publicly-owned institutions like the government try to put up walls to keep people from the information they rightly should have. Good thing some journalists like challenges, are good with puzzles, and like to win prizes.
This column was originally published in the July 24, 2024 print edition of The Morrisburg Leader.