OTTAWA – Canada’s outgoing information watchdog is threatening to seize documents after complaints that the bureaucratic wing of the Prime Minister’s Office is stonewalling some access-to-information requests. The information commissioner served formal notice on the Privy Council Office this week, warning that commission staff would use their legal powers to seize the documents themselves if […]

FIPA has asked Information and Privacy Commissioner David Loukidelis to investigate the destruction by the BC government of years of Cabinet emails in contravention of the Document Disposal Act. According to FIPA, this incident and the recent revelation about suppression of welfare statistics during the last election are the latest and most outrageous examples of […]

The federal government introduced legislation today which would vastly increase police surveillance of Canadians’ Internet communications. Since 2001, privacy watchdog groups, including FIPA, have squared off against successive Liberal and Conservative governments on similar “lawful access” legislation. We are quickly gearing up to oppose it again. The latest legislative package, the “Investigative Powers for the […]

Depression, infertility, cancer, addiction, abortion, erectile dysfunction, HIV/AIDS – whatever our health issues, Canadians value the right to choose who they share intimate health information with. This right is now under threat. E-Health will create a giant system of electronic health records that will eventually be accessible across the entire country. These government repositories of […]

BC FIPA has published its analysis of the BC Government’s performance in responsding to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests from 2006 to 2008. The report, titled “Failing FOI: How the BC Government flouts the Freedom of Information Act and stonewalls FOI requests”, reveals that the “administrative system that is supposed to support [FOI] is badly […]

A study released today by FIPA has found that the dire situation of delay and denial outlined by Information and Privacy Commissioner David Loukidelis in February is actually a lot worse. The new study is called FAILING FOI: How the BC Government flouts the Freedom of Information Act and stonewalls FOI requests. It updates the […]

Two identical FOI requests filed on the same day with the offices of Washington Governor Christine Gregoire and BC Premier Gordon Campbell got very different results. The Freedom of Information and Privacy Association filed the requests for information about intergovernmental meetings related to the new RFID-equipped drivers’ licences now being phased in across the province. […]

Vancouver – A non-partisan coalition, including FIPA, the BC Civil Liberties Association, and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, has come together to warn British Columbians that it is not just big spenders who are at risk under the new BC Election Act. The Election Act’s third party advertising restrictions have opened a nightmare of arbitrary enforcement, […]

Catch up on our activities in our spring update for members. In this issue: Free to Speak Campaign urges mass demonstrations of “civil obedience” Campaign for Open Government starts 2009 push E-Health Records roll out in BC without promised privacy protections Olympic Surveillance legacy no gift to privacy rights Enhanced Driver Licences Enhanced Identification Cards […]

The BC Government plans to roll out its new “e-Health” system of integrated electronic healthcare records as early as June 2009. The system is being launched without the basic privacy protections that were promised by government and poses a serious threat to every British Columbian’s constitutional right to privacy. Because the government has failed to […]

BC FIPA presented its submissions to the House of Commons Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics (ETHI) regarding Information Commissioner Robert Marleau’s 12 reform proposals. FIPA’s view [is] that we now have in this country a consensus that Commissioner Reid’s draft bill, with the addition of full Order making power for the Information […]

The B.C. government is getting ready to contract out its computer nerve-centre to a U.S. company, says B.C.’s biggest public-sector union. EDS Advanced Solutions, a B.C. subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard-EDS, is negotiating with the province to operate the mainframe computer servers at the government’s Victoria facility. The plan concerns FIPA because the USA Patriot Act enables […]