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ONTARIO: Northern Ontario city most secretive municipal government in Canada according to journalists' group

'City officials are slowly tightening the screws on transparency. It’s a story that needs to be told,' says News Media Canada CEO
20180727 city hall turl (2)
North Bay City Hall. Jeff Turl/BayToday.

NORTH BAY — It's not likely an award Invest North Bay will brag about on its website, but the City of North Bay has been awarded the 2020 Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy in the municipal category. 

"The city is being recognized because of repeated efforts to circumvent basic transparency and accountability measures expected of democratic governments. Among the laundry list of concerns brought to the attention of the Code of Silence jury were:  

“These patterns of blocking public access and scrutiny to how public dollars are being spent in the Gateway City is extremely troubling,” said John Hinds, president and CEO of News Media Canada. “City officials are slowly tightening the screws on transparency. It’s a story that needs to be told.” 

The Code of Silence Awards are presented annually by The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ); the Centre for Free Expression at Ryerson University (CFE); News Media Canada; and Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE). 

The intent of the awards is to call public attention to government or publicly funded agencies that work hard to hide information to which the public has a right under access to information legislation.

The City of North Bay was recognized with a ‘dishonourable mention’ in last year’s municipal category, which was won by the Town of Erin, Ont.

To date, the 2020 Code of Silence Awards have recognized the Federal Cabinet for suppressing public access to details about very large loans – at times amounting to billions of dollars – given to corporations out of the public purse, as well as Quebec’s Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks for its unwillingness to share lab data with scientists at Environment Canada related to four mysterious fish kills.

BayToday has reached out to Communications Manager Gord Young and Mayor Al McDonald for comment.


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Jeff Turl

About the Author: Jeff Turl

Jeff is a veteran of the news biz. He's spent a lengthy career in TV, radio, print and online, covering both news and sports. He enjoys free time riding motorcycles and spoiling grandchildren.
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