The Globe and Mail's Lawrence Martin uses the Conservative government's decision to kill the government's Access to Information database to review the many and creative ways the Harperites attempt to control the information agenda.

From the column: (behind a paywall for non-subscribers)

Hardly a week goes by without the Conservative government, with the subtlety of a dump truck, adding a delightful example to its control-freak highlight reel.

On the weekend came the news that the Conservatives have quietly killed a huge information registry used by Canadians to hold government accountable. The system, known as the Co-ordination of Access to Information Request System, has been discontinued because, Treasury Board officials said, it is no longer useful.

Last week, there was the charge from Auditor-General Sheila Fraser that the Tories were even trying to gag the officers of Parliament, herself included, who are supposed to be independent watchdogs.

Before that came the Keystone Kops thriller, a spectacular moment in the annals of spin control that saw the Prime Minister's men hightailing it down a fire escape in the Sheraton Hotel. They were trying to evade the journalist hordes who, on the Elections Canada imbroglio, had caught them, in flagrante delictu, giving select briefings to a favoured few.

On the question of silencing the watchdogs, Ms. Fraser blew the horn on the Stephen Harper crew in testimony at a Commons committee. She had caught wind about a draft proposal for a new communications strategy - or, as precision might have it, set of gag laws. The Privy Council Office, an arm of the Prime Minister's Office, would apparently be vetting her releases to the media. That, she stammered, was not going to happen. "I can tell you there is no way ..."

The government rushed in to assure everyone there must be a misunderstanding. This was not part of the new plan, said House Leader Peter Van Loan. But did the plan suddenly change overnight because Ms. Fraser belled the cat? Or was the vetting exercise not in the plan in the first place? Given the government's track record on the use of the muzzle, it is not exactly well positioned to receive the benefit of the doubt. We recall it once had plans for a new control-oriented media centre, only to back away after the plan got leaked and an uproar ensued.

One way to clear up the Fraser issue was for the Harperites simply to table their new communications draft proposal. "Here folks, read it. Decide for yourselves." But Mr. Van Loan wasn't prepared to do that.