XPost: can.politics, ont.politics, bc.politics   
   From: ConzRconz@YOW.ca   
      
   Postmedia News - March 3, 2014   
      
   Senate security to probe information leaks about auditor general’s probe   
      
      
   OTTAWA — A Senate committee has ordered Senate security to review leaks   
   to the news media about details of the auditor general’s sweeping probe   
   of Senate expenses.   
      
   Senators on the internal economy committee — the body that oversees   
   spending in the upper chamber — made the decision behind closed doors   
   after a series of news stories were published containing confidential   
   information about the auditor general’s not-yet-released audit.   
      
   The committee made the decision in December behind closed doors, The   
   Ottawa Citizen has learned.   
      
   The committee asked its security division, which is in charge of the   
   physical security of the Senate and senators as well as securing   
   sensitive information, to look into the leaks and find ways to better   
   keep secret the confidential details of auditor general Michael   
   Ferguson’s comprehensive review.   
      
   When senators were first told the details of the audit late last year,   
   they, their staff and members of the Senate’s administration were all   
   warned to keep details confidential. Ferguson’s office has given out few   
   details of the audit, citing that confidentiality.   
      
   There are conflicting details about how far along Ferguson is in the   
   audit, with some suggesting his teams are nowhere near done with the   
   first batch of senators under review. Ferguson is reviewing two years   
   worth of expenses for all senators, with the possibility of going even   
   further into past spending should he find something amiss with any   
   individual’s expenses.   
      
   The decision to launch an investigation into leaks is a change in   
   direction for the committee, which saw numerous tidbits of information   
   about spending audits on four senators — Patrick Brazeau, Mike Duffy,   
   Mac Harb and Pamela Wallin — leaked to reporters over the last 12 months.   
      
   Wallin’s lawyer even provided the committee with a list of leaks about   
   details of her travel spending audit, arguing that they were   
   intentionally given to selected media to damage her reputation. The list   
   included names of people who had access to Wallin’s audit documents,   
   suggesting that any of them as the source of the leak.   
      
   The Senate has not investigated leaks very well in the past.   
      
   Two years ago, the Senate’s banking committee started an investigation   
   into a leak of a draft report on its study of the nation’s anti-money   
   laundering initiatives to a French-language news outlet. In the end, the   
   committee called no witnesses and told the Senate as a whole that it had   
   dropped the matter.   
      
      
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        “It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save   
   the environment.”    ― Ansel Adams   
      
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