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Right to Know Week begins

Some things are private, some are not, and the difference between public and private information has been debated with increasing heat in recent…

Some things are private, some are not, and the difference between public and private information has been debated with increasing heat in recent years.

That’s why Hank Moorlag, the Yukon’s privacy commissioner, is hosting Right to Know Week in Whitehorse.

Moorlag’s initiative follows on a worldwide trend that began in Bulgaria in 2002, when a group of freedom of information advocates established September 28 as international right to know day.

Canada followed by establishing September 25 to October 1 as Right to Know Week.

This year, Moorlag is bringing the idea to the Yukon.

With some help, Moorlag set up a website — righttoknowyukon.ca — that details the week’s events.

Some of the posters around the Yukon capital have nothing to do with the territorial election, but rather the public’s right to know what its government — any government — can and cannot keep secret.

Grade 11 and 12 students in Whitehorse have the chance to compete in an essay-writing contest on the meaning of access to information.

And CBC moderator Russ Knutson will host a right-to-know forum on Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. at the Whitehorse Public Library.

“The public forum is about the right to know and how to exercise that democratic right,” said Moorlag. (GM)