
Internal project seeks to correct Order of Canada biases
The Liberal government has launched a project to reduce the overwhelming number of older, English-speaking men who receive Order of...
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While National Newswatch does not keep an archive of external articles for longer than 6 months, we do keep all articles written by contributors who post directly to our site. Here you will find all of the contributed and linked external articles from Dean Beeby.
The Liberal government has launched a project to reduce the overwhelming number of older, English-speaking men who receive Order of...
Wracked by energy, food and medicine shortages, the Cuban government is asking Ottawa for a break on its multimillion-dollar Canadian...
Members of a journalism panel who decide which Canadian newsrooms have the government’s seal of approval have billed taxpayers at...
Pierre Poilievre faces a litmus test over cabinet secrecy this year, should he become prime minister of Canada, as polls...
Freedom-of-information (FOI) regimes across Canada withered in 2024, as courts and governments tightened the noose around openness and transparency. Here...
Treasury Board of Canada released fresh government-wide statistics last week about citizens’ use of the federal Access to Information Act...
The RCMP’s geriatric airplanes and helicopters are long past their replacement dates, with almost half of the 30-aircraft fleet deemed...
Treasury Board of Canada, a central agency of the federal government, is Ottawa’s cheerleader for access to information. The institution...
The pro-active publication of internal documents by governments has long been touted as a cure-all for a dysfunctional access–to-information regime...
In public affairs journalism, all information has a best-before date. Citizens want to know what their governments are up to...
An internal memo for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledges that poverty is on the rise for many Canadians after years...
The federal government in 2004 created a kind of disaster bunker, where dozens of specialists huddle to co-ordinate an emergency...
The RCMP has lost one of its handguns - the second time the elusive weapon has disappeared.
RCMP in Nova Scotia ordered a mass incineration of discarded Mountie clothing and kit in the province after a murderer...
The federal government established a short-lived news agency last fall, generating dozens of fake-news items before the exercise wound down...
Canada’s official languages commissioner has launched an investigation into CBC/Radio-Canada’s practice of posting unilingual access-to-information documents on its websites. The...
In Canada’s doom-laden realm of freedom of information, where bad news is endemic, a ray of sunshine sometimes pierces the...
A new oral history of the Village Voice, the weekly rag that goosed American journalism for decades, is a pungent...
Canadians are not whiners by nature, but sometimes frustration about bad service makes us snap. We complain when our flights...
Sir Ernest Shackleton’s last expedition ship, which was located on the seafloor off Labrador this week, was reviled by his...
A three-year freeze on the sale of used RCMP vehicles has created such huge storage headaches that the Mounties will...
A recent media release from a powerful minister proclaimed the Liberal government’s new “trust and transparency strategy.” Anita Anand announced...
An internal review of the RCMP’s control policies for its uniforms, launched after a gunman used official clothing to impersonate...
Inger Hansen (1929-2013), Canada’s first information commissioner, knew something about political tyranny and open government. Hansen forfeited a normal childhood...
Good journalists frequently have barbed encounters with flaks for government ministers and departments, who delay, duck and obfuscate when asked...
There’s trouble in the ring at the RCMP’s iconic Musical Ride, where the horses are well cared for but their...
The first line of this century-old stanza is often quoted as a proverb to encourage patience. Few realize the rest...
The RCMP receives “insufficient federal investment” to carry out its increased responsibilities as Canada’s national policing service, Public Safety Canada...
Lincoln Alexander’s legacy of facing down racism in Canada is being celebrated again during this year’s Black History Month. Alexander...
In their heyday, newspapers maintained ‘morgues,’ musty places where clippings were indexed and stored. Sagacious librarians ran these fiefdoms, locating...
Canada’s top court last week roundly affirmed the confidentiality of cabinet documents, in a ruling that dismissed a challenge to...
Reporters have been bailing on freedom-of-information requests everywhere you look these days. The numbers are sagging federally, as well as...
Journalists are sometimes in the business of keeping secrets. They have a duty to protect the anonymity of their sources...
A lot of great scoops about government are hiding in plain sight. Open-source documents offering juicy news nuggets are often...
Journalists in Canada have long been minor users of freedom-of-information laws, for reasons that aren’t hard to fathom. Reporters are...
Ed Broadbent (1936-2024), who died this week at age 87, was a decent and honourable Canadian, a skilled politician respected...
Millions of dollars arrive each year at the Bank of Canada in the form of bank notes that are melted...
This year is a milestone for government transparency in Canada, marking 50 years since an obscure politician from Western Canada...
The RCMP has blown past a deadline for responding to a scathing public inquiry into the deaths of 22 Nova...
The great Charles Dickens in his 1857 novel Little Dorrit satirized how government bureaucracies serve themselves rather than citizens.
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