Ottawa has become a place where the nations business is done in secret, and access to information--the lifeblood of democracy in Canada--is under attack.Its being lost to an army of lobbyists and public-relations flacks who help set the political agenda and decide what you get to know. Its losing its struggle against a prime minister and a government that continue to delegitimize the medias role in the political system. The publics right to know has been undermined by a government that effectively killed Statistics Canada, fired hundreds of scientists and statisticians, gutted Library and Archives Canada and turned freedom of information rules into a joke. Facts, it would seem, are no longer important.In Kill the Messengers: Stephen Harper's Assault on Your Right to Know, Mark Bourrie exposes how trends have conspired to simultaneously silence the Canadian media and elect an anti-intellectual government determined to conduct business in private. Drawing evidence from multiple cases and examples, Bourrie demonstrates how budget cuts have been used to suppress the collection of facts that embarrass the governments position or undermine its ideologically based decision-making. Perhaps most importantly, Bourrie gives advice on how to take back your right to be informed and to be heard.

Kill the Messengers is not just a collection of evidence bemoaning the current state of the Canadian media, it is a call to arms for informed citizens to become active participants in the democratic process. It is a book all Canadians are entitled to read--and now, theyll get the chance.Praise for Kill the MessengersMark Bourries Kill the Messengers is the most important book about censorship in contemporary Canada. R. Franklin Carter, editor and researcher of the Book and Periodical Councils Freedom of Expression Committee.If the state of Canadas democracy doesnt already reduce you to tears, it will once you get your hands on Mark Bourries latest book Kill the Messengers. This book would be worth the time under any circumstances; in an election year, it is absolutely essential reading. RabbleaThe book paints Harper as ruthlessly attacking and even silencing journalists, scientists, judges, environmentalists, and intellectuals in a drive to remake Canada, rewrite our history, and keep the Conservatives in power.

It is one of the most damning books ever written about a sitting prime minister.Paul Gessell, Ottawa MagazinePeople are either going to love this book or hate it. Me, I loved it. Stephen Harper may not like it so much but would do well to heed it.Georgie Binks, Toronto StarA sweeping and sobering read.Susan Delacourt, Toronto StarSome of the books most valuable sections illustrate how the kind of control applied to the media and the public sphere is being applied to policy-making think the dismantling of the long-gun registry, cancelling the long-form census, or ignoring declining crime rates when crafting new justice legislation. If you are determined to pass certain kinds of laws, then suppressing the flow of information about how effective the laws are will make them more difficult to criticize.Chis Hannay, the Globe and MailExamining a Parliament now micromanaged by party whips, MPs who see no reason to attend the House of Commons to debate bills, and a media seemingly no longer able or willing to report on Parliament Hill in scrupulous detail or with a critical lens, Kill the Messengers paints a portrait of a democracy that's hobbled or, as Bourrie puts it, "e;on autopilot.

"e;Thomas Hachard, The TyeeThe most important and interesting parts of this book deal with how the prime minister and his staff have been able to manage and manipulate their message, taking advantage of key changes in the way the news media operates. Especially important is that Bourrie, a veteran member of the Parliamentary press gallery, does not refrain from assigning at least some of the blame to the media itself.Dan Rowe, Quill and QuireKill The Messengers is funny and unnerving. Bourrie takes aim with a snipers precision. The result is the gutsiest account of contemporary Canadian politics to come out of the parliamentary press gallery in a generation.Holly Doan, Blacklocks Reporter.