Peterborough City Hall blocks journalist from bathroom to stop leaks

In the balance/counter-balance relationship between government and journalists, those who know the secrets and set the agenda often go to great lengths to protect them.

They are doing things, those honourable members of elected office, and they don't always want the public to know what is happening. Not until the right moment, anyway – which is often never.

But secrets leak to the public, allegations spread through webs of contacts and sources. Through careless emails, misplaced documents, even in conversations overheard through bathroom walls – as someone in Peterborough, Ont., seems to suspect.

The Peterborough Examiner reports that a new city hall policy means that the public men's washroom goes out of service whenever council holds private meetings, ostensibly to stop private conversations from being overheard by the public, specifically journalists, on the other side of the wall.

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Examiner reporter Brendan Wedley says the issue apparently comes down to the thickness of the walls at city hall – council's closed-door meetings happen adjacent to the men's washroom, meaning someone could presumably lean over the urinal, cup their ear to the bathroom wall and obtain all the secrets of Peterborough municipal politics.

A security guard is now posted outside the bathroom, directing everyone to a women's washroom located nearby.

Wedley writes this about the incident:

Bowels. Leaks. The whole situation is ripe for mockery. But one suspects the move won't help council flush out the true culprit behind the leaked stories.

Puns aside, information leaks are considered serious business nowadays.

The U.S. has Edward Snowden hiding in a Russian airport after leaking information about secret surveillance programs. He may or may not be considered an enemy of the state. Unmanned drones may or may not be hovering over his head at this precise moment.

And we have Bradley Manning facing 136 years in prison after leaking some 700,000 pages of military reports to WikiLeaks.

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Peter MacKay, Canada's justice minister who was minister of defence not that long ago, went on a bit of a spree calling for investigations into information leaked from his department – including an incident where the details were "leaked" by a U.S. military press release.

Yep, in the game of politics, leaking information and plugging the holes is a big deal. Blocking the use of a public bathroom isn't the most extreme step ever taken. But it doesn't really pass the smell test.

In his eight years on the beat, Wedley has an impressive history of securing leaked information. He has broken stories about downtown commercial real estate deals, uncovered accusations that a former police board chairman threatened councillors before a key vote. He says none of his information has come from pressing his ear against the bathroom wall.

But it's not a bad idea. Peterborough journalists would be forgiven if they are spotted in the halls of City Hall, pressing cups against partitions in the hopes of hearing the latest gossip.

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