Ottawa won’t budge on secrecy laws
By now, we’ve all long forgotten that this was the party that campaigned on a platform of ‘accountability’.
Flashback: McGuinty won’t deny political interference with Freedom of Information requests | Information commissioner quits, Ottawa chided for lacking ‘guts’ | Canadian Parliament Threatens People For Posting Video Of Proceedings Online | Government secrecy ‘grim,’ watchdog says | Watchdog alarmed by Harper’s information clampdown | Listeria files withheld due to ’systemic’ problems with access to information | Public access vs. government secrecy the issue in Supreme Court of Canada case | Radical change needed in privacy protection, Ont. watchdog says | Files tagged as `sensitive’ cause unfair delays, watchdog says | Tentacles of Secrecy Grip Tightly | Parliament losing power, author says | Over 100 complaints about access to govt. info on Afghan mission: report | Information lockdown: How Harper Controls the Spin | Tories kill access to information database | Harper to create government-run media centre: report
Bruce Camion-Smith, Toronto Star
October 16, 2009
Conservatives flatly reject recommendations to open up the country’s most powerful institutions to more public scrutiny
OTTAWA—The federal government has rejected calls to modernize and expand Canada’s Access to Information Act, despite warnings that the program is collapsing under bureaucratic foot-dragging and political negligence.
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson this week refused to act on a Commons committee report urging changes to improve the right of Canadians to know more about the workings of the federal government. That includes a recommendation to open up Canada’s most powerful institutions — Parliament and the courts — to more scrutiny.
He also rejected a recommendation to make cabinet confidences — now strictly off limits — subject to access requests.
“It’s terribly frustrating,” said Liberal MP Paul Szabo, chair of the committee that produced the report. “There is a systemic problem where the government is averse to disclosure and is fighting the system and there’s no leadership within the government,” he said.
And while the Conservatives have long boasted about enhancing accountability in government, they “do exactly the opposite,” said Szabo (Mississauga South).
The problem starts at the top with an “absence of leadership” to signal that access to information is important, said Michel Drapeau, a lawyer and expert on the information legislation.
“It requires a nod from the top,” he said.
Drapeau took issue with the some of the committee recommendations, saying the system is so broken that it was pointless to merely tinker around the edges.
But he said the government can’t claim that the system is working well when reports and anecdotal evidence suggest otherwise.
“(Access to information) right now is a concept. In reality, in doesn’t work. It certainly doesn’t work in accordance with the spirit and the letter of the law,” he said.
Drapeau noted that while legislation says departments should respond within 30 days to information requests, Canadians can often wait 120 days or more. And when the information does arrive, it has usually been heavily edited. Canadians who complain to the information commissioner can face another long delay.
Such delays play into the hands of the government and help keep sensitive information under wraps until it’s often no longer of interest, Drapeau said.
Drapeau has called for a sweeping probe by Auditor General Sheila Fraser to review Ottawa’s performance on access to information.
In June, the Commons committee on access to information, privacy and ethics issued two reports urging changes to improve access-to-information legislation as well as the privacy act.
On privacy, the committee wanted better oversight of the collection of personal information. And it sought to strengthen provisions on the disclosure of personal information of Canadians to foreign states.
But in responses posted on the committee website on Wednesday, Nicholson suggested the proposed reforms were unnecessary and even unworkable.
Expanding the power and mandate of the information commissioner would change the position from “an ombudsman model towards a quasi-judicial model, which would not be consistent with other agents of Parliament,” Nicholson wrote.
On the privacy recommendations, Nicholson said that any changes must be “carefully considered.”
He said Ottawa’s response to issues such as child abduction, forced marriages or worldwide health threats would be “seriously hampered” by the proposed recommendations to the privacy law.
He said law enforcement and security agencies require a “flexible approach” and must be able to share information “quickly and efficiently.”
Privacy experts have warned that Canada’s outdated Privacy Act does not cover modern technologies, such as surveillance cameras and DNA samples from suspects.
“We’re very disappointed, actually,” said Chantal Bernier, assistant privacy commissioner. “While we agree with the minister that privacy is well protected in Canada, we feel we can do better.”
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October 18th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
It is not surprising that Rob Nicholson will not open the books on the secrets of the Harper government after all did Harper not run on the “accountability” platform.
October 19th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
I would like to see the transcript of the conversation between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Governor General, Michelle Jean which took place last December when they decided to prorogue parliament. I don’t suppose they will ever make that conversation public will they?
October 19th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
How about the next best thing… Walrus cartoonists Jason Sherman and David Parkins’ prescient ode to Harper and his tickling of the ivories – and the melting of the GG’s heart – in the March 2009 magazine.
http://mail.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2009.03-the-walrus-presents-tres-bien-ensemble/
October 20th, 2009 at 8:59 am
I’ve noticed a large swing in the media to coverup the stories like Kevin Pages stimulus spending report. In Fact it seems as if their hasn’t been much news at all lately on the economy. This happened quite suddenly around the time of the confidence vote of October 1st or shortly before. The media seems to playing down the severety of the recession and inadvertently supporting our present government by doing so. Has anyone else noticed this sudden turnaround in the way the medias covering stories lately? Most of the comments don’t seem to reflect the views I am hearing from people in my own community. Any other comments on the subject?
http://www.fakeactionplan.com
January 16th, 2010 at 7:10 am
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March 5th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
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April 23rd, 2010 at 2:52 am
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June 8th, 2010 at 4:10 am
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October 7th, 2010 at 9:33 am
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