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Canada: Obama's biography is a State Secret

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
Ottawa keeps lid on Obama briefing notes

Security concerns; Request yields documents full of blackouts

Andrew Mayeda, Canwest News Service

OTTAWA - He's the most high-profile politician in recent history, the winner of a bruising election campaign in which every aspect of his life -- from his smoking habit to anti-American comments made by his pastor -- came under relentless scrutiny.

But according to Canadian government officials, a biography of U.S. President Barack Obama provided to Prime Minister Stephen Harper shortly after Obama's inauguration last January qualifies as a state secret.

Under the Access to Information Act, Canwest News Service requested all briefing materials provided to the Prime Minister ahead of Mr. Obama's visit to Canada in February.

Mr. Obama's whirlwind stop in Ottawa on Feb. 19 was his first visit to a foreign country after being inaugurated. After a series of icebreaking meetings, the Prime Minister and the President pledged to co-operate on everything from the financial crisis to clean energy and Afghanistan. But the trip will perhaps best be remembered for the rock-star treatment accorded to Mr. Obama, who charmed the public by declaring his love for Canada and picking up a Beaver Tail dessert on an impromptu stop in the national capital's Byward Market.

The 77 pages of heavily censored documents released to Canwest include memos to Mr. Harper from his foreign-policy adviser, a letter from Canada's former ambassador to the United States, Michael Wilson, as well as talking points to prepare Mr. Harper for the meeting. It also includes biographies of the President and officials who accompanied the President on the trip to Canada, including National Security Advisor James Jones, National Economic Council director Lawrence Summers, Mr.

Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

In blacking out the biographies of the President and his entourage, officials cited a section of the act that allows the government to refuse records whose disclosure could be "injurious to the conduct of international affairs, the defence of Canada or any states allied or associated with Canada."

An official at the Privy Council Office, the bureaucratic arm of the Prime Minister's Office, said department officials compiled the biographies themselves to prepare the Prime Minister for a telephone call to Obama on Jan. 23, three days after he was inaugurated.

"That was a compilation of information that they put together specifically for the call,"
said Carole Piche, an official in the department's Access to Information division.

Retired colonel Michel Drapeau, an expert in access-to-information law at the University of Ottawa, said it's not surprising that much of the briefing material on such a high-level meeting was being withheld. Canadian courts have tended to support the government's view that releasing such materials could hurt relations with other countries, he said.

But he said it was "silly" for Canadian officials to withhold the biography of such a prominent public figure.

"He's not the former director of the CIA, or anything. I mean, this guy's as public as it comes," said Mr. Drapeau, adding it's highly unlikely Canada would be privy to personal or professional information about the President that had not already been disclosed.

One of the few uncensored items shows the Prime Minister was thoroughly briefed on the energy relationships between the two countries ahead of his meeting with Mr. Obama.

Officials provided Mr. Harper with a series of maps that show the flow of electricity, natural gas and crude oil between the two countries. Another map shows the greenhouse-gas emissions from Canadian and U.S. coal-fired plants, as well as oil sands operations.

http://www.nationalpost.com/todays-paper/story.html?id=2201589
 
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