Do details of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s panda diplomacy represent a potential threat to Canada’s national security?
The federal government has suggested that the answer to this question is yes, in response to a request for access to an internal memorandum on the issue.
Harper announced during a trade mission last February that China had agreed to loan two pandas to Canadian zoos in Toronto and Calgary for a 10-year period that was expected to start in 2013.
Government agencies and departments are required by law to provide access to federal records to any member of the public who makes a request and pays a $5.00 fee.
But following an official request from Postmedia News, most passages of the memo about the panda agreement were withheld by Environment Canada under provisions of the federal access to information law that allow the government to protect information from disclosure if it “reasonably could be expected to be injurious to the conduct of international affairs, the defence of Canada or any state allied or associated with Canada or the detection, prevention or suppression of subversive or hostile activities.”
Some of this protected information included a portion of the memo’s title – “Giant panda (WORD DELETED) Canadian zoos.”
Harper announced during a trade mission last February that China had agreed to loan two pandas to Canadian zoos in Toronto and Calgary for a 10-year period that was expected to start in 2013.
The memo, dated Oct. 25, 2011 and prepared for the office of Environment Minister Peter Kent, noted that China had already agreed to loan the pandas to the zoos and that his department had “an important role to play in the giant panda… arrangement.”
It told Kent’s staff that Environment Canada would be required to issue an import permit to legally bring the animals into the country, since the pandas are identified as a species threatened with extinction under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. It also noted that a second export permit would be required from China at the end of the 10-year period.
“It is likely that (WORD DELETED) announcement will generate media interest and public attention,” said the memo, signed by assistant deputy minister Andrea Lyon. “A permit may be issued only if the specimen is not to be used for commercial purposes and if the import will be for purposes that are not detrimental to the survival of the species.”
The department also withheld other sections of the memo under provisions of the law that allow the government to protect information under consultations or deliberations, as well as negotiating positions of the government.
Kent’s office declined to answer specific questions about the information withheld by the department or whether the minister believed the details could actually harm Canada’s national security. Instead, Kent offered a statement explaining that his office does not interfere with requests made under access to information legislation.
“Decisions related to access to information requests are made by departmental officials,” wrote Kent’s spokesman Adam Sweet in an email. “The minister’s office is not involved in, nor do we direct, decisions related to access to information requests. This includes the access to information request you are referencing.”
China has used pandas in its diplomatic relations as gifts to other countries to represent goodwill and a desire for better relations.
But since the 1980s, it has only offered them as loans that generally cost the receiving countries about $1 million per year.
Some of the money, to be invested by the two zoos, is expected to go toward research and conservation of the species in China. But the full details were not immediately available.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Mike De Souza
The federal government has suggested that the answer to this question is yes, in response to a request for access to an internal memorandum on the issue.
Harper announced during a trade mission last February that China had agreed to loan two pandas to Canadian zoos in Toronto and Calgary for a 10-year period that was expected to start in 2013.
Government agencies and departments are required by law to provide access to federal records to any member of the public who makes a request and pays a $5.00 fee.
But following an official request from Postmedia News, most passages of the memo about the panda agreement were withheld by Environment Canada under provisions of the federal access to information law that allow the government to protect information from disclosure if it “reasonably could be expected to be injurious to the conduct of international affairs, the defence of Canada or any state allied or associated with Canada or the detection, prevention or suppression of subversive or hostile activities.”
Some of this protected information included a portion of the memo’s title – “Giant panda (WORD DELETED) Canadian zoos.”
Harper announced during a trade mission last February that China had agreed to loan two pandas to Canadian zoos in Toronto and Calgary for a 10-year period that was expected to start in 2013.
The memo, dated Oct. 25, 2011 and prepared for the office of Environment Minister Peter Kent, noted that China had already agreed to loan the pandas to the zoos and that his department had “an important role to play in the giant panda… arrangement.”
It told Kent’s staff that Environment Canada would be required to issue an import permit to legally bring the animals into the country, since the pandas are identified as a species threatened with extinction under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. It also noted that a second export permit would be required from China at the end of the 10-year period.
“It is likely that (WORD DELETED) announcement will generate media interest and public attention,” said the memo, signed by assistant deputy minister Andrea Lyon. “A permit may be issued only if the specimen is not to be used for commercial purposes and if the import will be for purposes that are not detrimental to the survival of the species.”
The department also withheld other sections of the memo under provisions of the law that allow the government to protect information under consultations or deliberations, as well as negotiating positions of the government.
Kent’s office declined to answer specific questions about the information withheld by the department or whether the minister believed the details could actually harm Canada’s national security. Instead, Kent offered a statement explaining that his office does not interfere with requests made under access to information legislation.
“Decisions related to access to information requests are made by departmental officials,” wrote Kent’s spokesman Adam Sweet in an email. “The minister’s office is not involved in, nor do we direct, decisions related to access to information requests. This includes the access to information request you are referencing.”
China has used pandas in its diplomatic relations as gifts to other countries to represent goodwill and a desire for better relations.
But since the 1980s, it has only offered them as loans that generally cost the receiving countries about $1 million per year.
Some of the money, to be invested by the two zoos, is expected to go toward research and conservation of the species in China. But the full details were not immediately available.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Mike De Souza
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