{"id":175598,"date":"2025-09-28T15:13:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T15:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/175598\/"},"modified":"2025-09-28T15:13:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T15:13:06","slug":"ottawa-abusing-access-to-information-law-to-avoid-releasing-documents-watchdog-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/175598\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa abusing access to information law to avoid releasing documents, watchdog says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Canada’s information commissioner says a provision that allows government institutions to refuse to disclose advice to a minister ‘is one of the most abused’ in the Access to Information Act.Sean Kilpatrick\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s freedom of information<\/a> watchdog has accused Ottawa of maintaining a culture of secrecy, saying some federal departments are abusing exemptions to Canada\u2019s access to information law as an excuse to withhold documents. <\/p>\n

In an interview, Information Commissioner Caroline Maynard criticized government departments for wrongly withholding records, including statistics, on the grounds that they are exempt from disclosure because they count as advice to ministers. <\/p>\n

She said exemptions to the federal access to information law, which enshrines the principle that citizens have a right to know, are being widely used to deny freedom of information requests. <\/p>\n

Ms. Maynard said the exemption that allows a government institution to refuse to disclose advice to a minister should be narrowly applied, but is instead being used to withhold records. <\/p>\n

She said the provision \u201cis one of the most abused\u201d in the 40-year-old act, and she thinks it should be rewritten. <\/p>\n

Federal review of access to information law \u2018doesn\u2019t have credibility,\u2019 expert says<\/a><\/p>\n

Ms. Maynard added that in briefing notes for ministers, \u201cwe tell them, there\u2019s one paragraph that\u2019s advice, the rest is all the basis on which your advice has been given. So, that should not be covered by the exemption.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Maynard said there should be a presumption in favour of releasing information, rather than withholding it. <\/p>\n

She criticized some government officials whose first reaction to a records request is: \u201cWhat is it that we should redact? What is it that we should exclude from this disclosure?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government needs to change their culture,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI still think that Canada can do better. I still think that leadership can promote transparency, can promote disclosure by default.\u201d<\/p>\n

During this year\u2019s general election, Prime Minister Mark Carney signalled that if he was elected, he would commit to a review of Canada\u2019s access to information regime. <\/p>\n

When asked at an April press conference about his position on the issue, which was not mentioned in the Liberal platform, he said a review would serve Canadians well. <\/p>\n

Carney pledges to review Canada\u2019s access to information regime<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI think looking at access to information is quite important. The speed with which the information is provided, the redactions \u2013 I\u2019m happy to commit to having a review of that,\u201d Mr. Carney said. \u201cBecause I do find that, at least as an outsider until now, and as a consumer of it, that I can\u2019t always follow the process.\u201d <\/p>\n

Ms. Maynard said an update to the Access to Information Act is long overdue. She said the volume of information has hugely increased since the act was first passed in 1983, to include e-mails and other electronic records. Because her office is dealing with such a huge volume of complaints, she said it takes two years to make a ruling. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt shouldn\u2019t have to take two years to investigate a complaint,\u201d Ms. Maynard said. However, she added that her office has managed to cut the backlog down from four years. <\/p>\n

By the end of this June, the watchdog had an inventory of 2,294 complaints which had yet to be determined. Between April and June, the information watchdog received 1,329 complaints, including about refusals of requests and delays in replying. <\/p>\n

But Ms. Maynard said some federal departments are trying to be more transparent, with access to information officials working hard to abide by the openness provisions of the act. <\/p>\n

Globe and Mail investigation Secret Canada<\/a> found that public institutions are routinely breaking access laws by violating legal time limits, redacting too much information and claiming no records exist when they do. <\/p>\n

2024: How transparent is your city? Audit of freedom of information requests finds vast differences<\/a><\/p>\n

The commissioner said some departments are denying requests on the grounds that complying would breach cabinet confidences. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow we don\u2019t have any way to question when they say something is cabinet confidence, whether it is or not, because I have no authority to review those,\u201d Ms. Maynard said, adding that she\u2019s asked to review cabinet confidences so she can make her own determination.<\/p>\n

In 2019, changes were made to the access to information law, giving the Information Commissioner new powers, including to issue binding orders.<\/p>\n

But some of her orders telling government departments to disclose information have been ignored, and Ms. Maynard has had to go to court to try and force the handover of records. <\/p>\n

She has used a mandamus writ to make some departments, including the Department of National Defence, comply with their duty to release information. Since the writs were served, the volume of access complaints at the Defence Department has dropped, she said. <\/p>\n

The Information Commissioner said if Ottawa were more transparent, it would increase both government accountability and public trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cInformation leads to trust, leads to confidence,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd if people don\u2019t have that information, they don\u2019t know who to trust anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Canada’s information commissioner says a provision that allows government institutions to refuse to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44,714],"class_list":{"0":"post-175598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}