It seems that the Nova Scotia government has finally wilted under the pressure and relented on its stance to withhold a report on gambling which they had originally claimed was flawed.
The Nova Scotia government had originally requested the report be compiled to examine the economical and social impact of gambling, but after reviewing the results 18 months ago, the government elected to shelve the report citing it was fundamentally flawed with its research methods.
Of course, that explanation wasn’t good enough, particularly for gambling opponents who smelled a rat and argued that the Nova Scotians were attempting some sort of cover-up. The Canadian Press and an anti-gambling group called Game Over VLTs appealed to a review officer in a bid to get the report released by the Labour Department.
Dulcie McCallum later recommended the release of the full draft report. Despite disagreeing with the recommendation, the Nova Scotia government has now agreed to release the document along with their comments outlining its concerns within 30 days.
This decision will no doubt have an effect on future reports as the government has now relinquished its power to shelve reports that may or may not be flawed.
Dulcie McCallum quoted in Canadian Press, “In my report, I found that Nova Scotians are pretty bright people and they can figure out whether something is a bit skewed or seek more information to fully understand something.”
I’m not sure what planet McCallum is living on but that’s never been true. You can’t release a report by so-called experts, and expect the masses who are non-experts to sift through technical jargon and reporting methods to find errors. That is the responsibility of the government or the entity that requested the report to be conducted. Whether in fact the report was flawed will now be up to the court of public opinion, but if anything, far too often people will believe inaccurate studies especially when it comes to gambling.
