OTTAWA – The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) today called on Canada’s political party leaders to explain during the two upcoming leaders’ debates how they would reform the country’s access to information system if elected.
“Canadians’ right to know is so frequently poorly-served by our crumbling federal access to information system,” said CAJ president Brent Jolly in a press release.
“Looking at the party platforms, there is scant mention of plans for reforms, which is a Houdini-like act of deception aimed at keeping citizens perpetually in the dark about how government decisions are made.”
The CAJ press release indicates the Conservative Party and the Green Party are the only ones that mention the Access to Information Act at all in their platforms. The Conservative platform says the party will review the Access to Information Act, while the Greens say they will expand the Act to cover “the Prime Minister’s Office, minister’s offices, and administration of parliament,” the press release says.
In 2015, Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party promised improvements to access to government information, but “we have barely scratched the surface in terms of modernizing a system that is still stuck in the 1980s,” said Jolly.
Cartt.ca contributor explains his experience with ATIP requests
Ahmad Hathout, a regular Cartt.ca contributor, has experienced first-hand how frustrating the access to information system is – and how much worse it became during the pandemic. In the following, he explains his experience with filing Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) requests:
“There are several issues I’ve noticed with the federal access to information system, specifically during the pandemic. First, the pandemic has been used as an excuse to delay disclosure of simple requests by more than four months sometimes. We’re talking about briefing notes, the numbers of which they put online so people can request them easily.
“Second, the pandemic has been used as an excuse so much that some departments don’t even respond to requests within 30 days of receiving it, as is required. I’ve filed multiple requests to Indigenous Services Canada to which I’ve received no response after 30 days – no notification that it will be delayed, nothing. Crickets. More broadly, I have specific outstanding requests that date back before the pandemic. I have filed several complaints to the information commissioner, but any resolution takes a really long time in and of itself.
“Third, the pandemic has exposed how far behind some departments are in securely digitizing their relatively sensitive information for transport. Some of my requests are delayed supposedly because relevant documents cannot be moved securely.
“Here’s an example explanation from one briefing note ATIP: “‘I would like to inform you that while the responsive document has been located, the department is currently unable to take action on this request at the current time. Given the Government of Canada guidelines on the storage and transmission of documents, coupled with the current telework environment, ISED do not at present have a means to securely deliver this document to the ATIP office.’”
“But the issue is worse when you figure that some other agencies and provinces handle things differently (read: better). For example, the CRTC has generally been prompt with requests and has abided by timelines, while the FOI departments in a couple of ministries in the British Columbia government – which actually requests to extend deadlines as a courtesy – has been, from my perspective, the model citizen here.”
Given Hathout’s experiences, it is no wonder CAJ is calling on all federal party leaders to promise an overhaul of Canada’s access to information system.
