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brianpeckford
Jun 14
The Globe and Mail Newspaper has conducted a study into the Freedom Of Information Acts of Our Governments . They call it:
‘SECRET CANADA
How Canada’s FOI system broke under its own weight’
It describes how our Governments rather than having Freedom Of Information Acts have Acts that operate in a fashion to deny the citizen legitimate information to which the citizen is entitled.
Some examples in the report:
‘A developer from Cornwall, Ont., is perplexed to find that his building permits are suddenly being denied. He files a request under freedom-of-information law for copies of any city records about him or his company. Three months later, he’s told he will need to pay a $1,963.50 processing fee. When he does, he receives pages of mostly blanked-out paper, a full box of his own building applications and files and a note that 3,500 records are being fully withheld.
In Saskatoon, a woman wants to learn about the outcome of a police investigation in which she was a complainant. She submits a freedom-of-information request and specifically asks for a copy of her witness statement, as well as copies of e-mails that she had provided as evidence. In response, the police service refuses <www.canlii.org/en/sk/skipc/doc/2022/2022canlii30695/2022canlii30695.html?searchUrlHash=AAAAAQAzImFic3VyZCByZXN1bHQgcHJpbmNpcGxlIiBhbmQgInBvbGljZSIgYW5kICJlbWFpbHMiAAAAAAE&resultIndex=10> to release those records without redactions, because of privacy concerns – privacy concerns about records she supplied.
A wildlife protection organization is skeptical of an Alberta government claim that scores of wild horses need to be culled to prevent ecological damage. They believe the assertion is based on data that was given to the government by a ranchers’ association. The activists request those records, and are told they will need to pay the association for a copy. The price tag: $110,022.15.
These cases, which are among hundreds reviewed by The Globe and Mail, are a snapshot of the frustrations and stonewalling Canadians encounter every day when trying to access public information using the legal framework governments have created.’
The report goes on to say:
‘Freedom-of-information laws <www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/aiprp-atip/comprendredroit-understandingright-eng.html> – sometimes called access-to-information laws – give people the right to obtain records from public institutions. These laws exist in every jurisdiction in Canada and in countries around the world, and are meant to serve as a vital check on power.
The legislation enshrines into law the principle that information in the possession of governments belongs to the people, and that citizens must be able to access that information to participate in society and make informed decisions. This is why freedom of information is often called the oxygen of democracy.
When the federal government enacted its legislation 40 years ago, Canada was among the first 10 countries in the world to do so, making it a global leader. But today, after decades of neglect by successive provincial and federal governments, Canada’s freedom-of-information regime is broken.
This is how the system is supposed to work: A person submits what is known as an FOI request <www.secretcanada.com/foi-guides-and-resources> – a formal, written request for a record. Once a public institution receives it, an FOI co-ordinator will start tracking down the requested files. Access laws recognize that some things can’t be made public, so all the legislation sets out exemptions for certain information, such as anything that would pose a threat to national security or compromise someone’s personal information. An FOI co-ordinator is supposed to review each file line by line and only redact as necessary. The default is supposed to be transparency.
From there, every access law says institutions must release the information to the requester within a set time frame – often 30 days, with some exceptions.
But this isn’t happening.’
The report continues:
For the past 20 months, The Globe has been investigating how and why the system has come apart, as part of a project called Secret Canada. <www.secretcanada.com/>
Through hundreds of interviews, an analysis of thousands of government records and appeals decisions, as well as a national audit of FOI statistics and practices, this reporting has shown that – at a time of plummeting trust in government and institutions –
*every day, public bodies and governments at every level are breaking the law.*
Across the country, FOI units have been starved of resources and staff.
Institutions can no longer meet their statutory deadlines.
The laws themselves are impractical in a digital world.
And it is normal for institutions to refuse to release records that judges and adjudicators have repeatedly said are public, such as government contracts.
Meanwhile, public servants are regularly advised by their superiors to withhold information – even if the legislation permits its release – to avoid risk or embarrassment.
Exacerbating the problem is the fact that, in the Canadian system, *there are few to no consequences for breaking access laws. As a result, institutions are denying the public access to its own information as a matter of routine.*
For users of the system, there is little recourse.
Requesters of information can appeal if they’re dissatisfied with a public institution’s response, but that can take years. And even if an adjudicator determines an institution contravened access law, the most likely consequence is that the body will be forced to release records it had previously withheld.
Even minor professional repercussions for public servants are rare. (Canadian access laws include “offences” sections with potential punishments, but these mainly relate to privacy breaches and knowingly destroying or altering records that should be released.)’
And
*Political leaders have effectively created a freedom of information regime that incentivizes institutions to keep public records secret.*
*“The way government has been handling access, I think, is an affront to democracy. Period,” said Stephen Azzi, a political historian and former public servant.*
*“If you believe in democracy‚ you have to believe that the public has a right to be informed. The public can’t pass judgment on government if we don’t know what the government is doing. But how can we assess the work of government if we don’t have information?”*
And here are some numbers:
‘ Canada’s access dysfunction, in numbers
As part of the Secret Canada reporting, The Globe conducted an audit of how provincial, territorial and federal governments are handling access requests. (Each jurisdiction has its own freedom-of-information law.) In total, The Globe filed 253 individual FOI requests with every government department and ministry in the country, seeking access to their 2021 internal request tracking systems.
*All 22 ministries in Alberta refused to comply with The Globe’s FOIs. *
Those that gave explanations said there were “no records.” Andrew Hanon, communications director for Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction, acknowledged the province uses a tracking system, but said in a statement that fulfilling The Globe’s request would have required it to create a record that did not exist in electronic form. “Therefore, in accordance with section 10 of the FOIP Act, there were no records responsive to your request.” He added the province is exploring whether it can provide some of the requested information.
Altogether, 225 public bodies were included in the analysis.
*The Secret Canada audit determined that only 21 per cent of FOI requests were granted in full in 2021. *
Another 46 per cent were granted with redactions.
Only 50 per cent were completed within 30 days.
Most jurisdictions require a decision to be made within this time frame. (Each access act allows for extensions in certain circumstances.)
In total, 5 per cent of requests took more than six months.
(These calculations exclude ministries of the environment in Quebec <www.secretcanada.com/institutions-we-track/environnement-et-lutte-contre-les-changements-climatiques-qc> and Ontario, <www.secretcanada.com/institutions-we-track/the-environment-conservation-and-parks-on>because, combined, they account for 33 per cent of all FOI requests in the data set, and their numbers skewed the results. The ministries receive high numbers of requests from lawyers and engineering firms doing research on properties, which disproportionately generate “no records” responses.
When these ministries are included, the results are as follows:
19 per cent of requests were granted in full, 37 per cent were granted with redactions,
55 per cent were completed within 30 days,
and 8 per cent took more than 6 months to process. Immigration,
Refugees and Citizenship Canada data did not overwhelm the data set, because it appears the department did not include personal records requests.
Although only a small fraction of FOI requests are ever appealed, The Globe conducted an analysis of 1,098 publicly available provincial and territorial appeal decisions from 2022.
That review found that, in cases where appellants had raised concerns about the overuse of redactions, *adjudicators ruled that public institutions had wrongfully withheld information 59 per cent *of the time.
But the true rate is likely much higher. The appeals decisions show that public institutions will often backpedal on their redactions – or discover new records – as soon as an appeals commission gets involved.
For example, in a 2022 case <www.canlii.org/en/sk/skipc/doc/2022/2022canlii117465/2022canlii117465.html> out of Regina, a requester complained when the municipality refused to release records dealing with a development company. The city claimed an exemption designed to protect business trade secrets.
Once the appeal was filed, the city released everything. “As such, this review will no longer consider the exemptions the City applied to the records,” the adjudicator wrote.
When these types of cases are factored in, a conservative reading of public appeals decisions shows that unnecessary redactions and exclusions were present in at *least 68 per cent of appealed cases.*
*Appeals adjudicators also found that public bodies had conducted inadequate searches for records about a third of the time this complaint was raised, and that 93 per cent of complaints about delays were valid*.
Across the appeals reviewed by The Globe – regarding redactions, delays, fees, improper searches for records, attempts to decline to process requests – adjudicators disagreed with institutions’ decisions more than 60 per cent of the time.
The Globe had to analyze Quebec separately because its appeals process runs, uniquely in Canada, as an administrative court. In the province, only about a third of publicly available cases resulted in wins for appellants.
The most recent annual report <www.oic-ci.gc.ca/sites/default/files/2022-06/AnnualReport-OIC-2021-2022-EN-Final.pdf> from the federal appeals body, the Office of the Information Commissioner, concluded *that 64 per cent of complaints that required a decision were well founded.* (The vast majority of appeals – federally and otherwise – are resolved prior to a decision.)’
I word urge readers of this blog to read the whole report.
Did someone say the word democracy, or transparency or accountability ? How about FREEDOM and LIBERTY?
********
*Are you, or do you know someone, who is prepared to blow the whistle ?** *
*https://thegnmsolution.com/privacy-and-security/*
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