Ottawa-based experts on Canada\u2019s access-to-information law are condemning recent government proposals to update the legislation and calling on parliamentarians to urgently review how best to reform the ailing system.<\/p>\n
Ken Rubin, who has uncovered reams of government documents as an independent researcher and activist, is one of three signatories to an open letter dated March 26 asking a Commons committee on access to information to review current best practices and develop a \u201cmodel\u201d access to information bill.<\/p>\n
The other two signatories are Dean Beeby, an independent journalist and author, and Matt Malone, a lawyer, academic and founder of the investigative journalism database\u00a0Open by Default<\/a>.<\/p>\n The letter comes as\u00a0the\u00a0Treasury Board is conducting a statutory review of the federal Access to Information Act, which governs\u00a0how Canadians\u00a0access internal\u00a0government records.<\/p>\n \u201cThe urgency now is that the current announced Treasury Board review is proposing to the public further regressive access to information administrative changes, so we fear\u00a0the end result\u00a0will not be\u00a0helpful\u00a0and your review cannot wait,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n \u201cNow is the time for your\u00a0Committee\u00a0to\u00a0assist\u00a0and bring forward much needed model legislation on the public\u2019s right to know.\u201d<\/p>\n The Access to Information Act, which came into force in 1983, requires a review of the legislation every five years. The Treasury Board is responsible for handling that review.<\/p>\n Earlier this month,\u00a0the department\u00a0put out\u00a0a\u00a0call\u00a0for\u00a0public\u00a0feedback<\/a> on several proposed policy approaches to address issues with the access-to-information system.<\/p>\n Most frequent users of the act, including journalists and lawyers, agree the act is badly in need of reform, often describing a sluggish system where information is\u00a0frequently\u00a0withheld without adequate justification.<\/p>\n But\u00a0Beeby, one of the signatories of the open letter,\u00a0described\u00a0in a post on his Substack<\/a>\u00a0why he believes the Treasury Board proposals are\u00a0a step in the wrong direction.<\/p>\n Beeby raised concerns with several of the policies, including one that would allow the government to certify \u201cbad actors\u201d \u2014 or those who use digital tools to flood the system with requests \u2014 as \u201cvexatious applicants,\u201d allowing departments to legally ignore their requests for information.<\/p>\n According to Beeby, the journalistic database Open by Default could qualify under that criteria.<\/p>\n Rather than relying on what the Treasury Board recommends, the letter is calling for the Commons standing committee on access to information, privacy and ethics to instead conduct its own review based on expert testimony.<\/p>\n \u201cThis we would see as a credible exercise that the public will\u00a0participate\u00a0in, and\u00a0not be hostage to a negative\u00a0outcome from\u00a0Treasury\u00a0Board,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n The letter also came a couple of weeks after Premier Doug Ford\u2019s government announced changes to provincial access-to-information legislation, which would shield the premier\u2019s office and cabinet members from having to release information.<\/p>\n Those proposed changes have been criticized by the provincial information commissioner.<\/p>\n The Treasury Board did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n Our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark our homepage<\/a> and sign up for our newsletters<\/a>\u00a0so we can keep you informed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ottawa-based experts on Canada\u2019s access-to-information law are condemning recent government proposals to update the legislation and calling on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[218226,218230,49,48,218223,893,218224,218225,218228,20739,218229,218227,187502],"class_list":["post-566354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-access-to-information","tag-access-to-information-act","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dean-beeby","tag-government","tag-government-proposals","tag-ken-rubin","tag-model-legislation","tag-ottawa","tag-proposals","tag-signatories","tag-treasury-board"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566354","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=566354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}