The Peter Bryce Prize for Whistleblowing is awarded annually by the Centre for Free Expression to honour individuals who serve the greater good by courageously speaking up about wrongdoing and abuses of public trust.  The prize is named after Dr. Peter H. Bryce, an early Canadian whistleblower who, in 1907, spoke up about appalling public […]

The Special Committee to Review the Personal Information Protection Act released its report with recommendations titled Modernizing British Columbia’s Private Sector Privacy Law. “I am strongly encouraged to see many of the recommendations that FIPA, BCCLA, and our partners made to the Committee reflected in the final report” according to Freedom of Information and Privacy […]

FIPPA Section 68 is clear: the Minister is to table an Annual Report on FIPPA before the Legislative Assembly as soon as possible. This Government has failed to do so since 2019. It is simply not believable that the Ministers’ earliest opportunity to table a 2019/2020 Annual Report on FIPPA is the spring of 2022, particularly because they just introduced amendments to the legislation and […]

Bill 22 makes the status quo worse for accountability, transparency, and privacy.  On November 25th, the BC Government introduced late stage amendments to  Bill 22 Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) 2021 which will need to be reviewed. On the same day they invoked closure to ram Bill 22 through the legislature and into law without further debate or consideration.  Bill 22 is extraordinary for all the wrong reasons.   The inspiration is extraordinary because […]

FIPA submitted multiple Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to the BC government this fall regarding the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) and the public engagements held in the summer of 2021. Government requested extensions for all of them. That pushed release for some until after the end of session. We pushed […]

Victoria, November 16, 2021 – Polling results released today indicate that several proposed changes introduced in Bill 22 are not supported by British Columbians. “The results of this poll show that British Columbians neither agree nor support two of the largest changes in Bill 22” said BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association (FIPA) Executive […]

The Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy is awarded annually by the Centre for Free Expression, Canadian Association of Journalists, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, and News Media Canada to call public attention to governments, government departments, and agencies that distinguish themselves by denying public access to government information to which […]

Bill 22 is a failure. We suspected it might be bad. On review it is worse than anyone expected. “We started to compile pluses and minuses,” says FIPA (Freedom of Information and Privacy Association) Executive Director Jason Woywada. “The problem is there are so few positives and so many serious minuses we needed to take immediate […]

A step backwards for transparency when the public needs it most. VICTORIA, October 18, 2021 – Bill 22, introduced in the BC legislature today, shows a disregard for the Legislature, its legislation, and, most importantly, British Columbians.  “The legislation falls short. It is a missed opportunity and, in key areas, a step in the wrong direction” according to FIPA (Freedom of Information and Privacy Association) Executive Director Jason Woywada. […]

Join FIPA President Mike Larsen with Commissioner Michael McEvoy for an important update on transparency and privacy in British Columbia. About this event Commissioner Michael McEvoy of B.C.’s Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) will make a brief presentation followed by facilitated question and answers with FIPA President Mike Larsen. This session will […]

As part of our efforts to recognize the importance of the events and actions past and present that surround this date, FIPA wishes to highlight work being done in the area. Legal Perspectives Indigenous Canadian Conceptions of Privacy: A Legal Primer In 2019, while at Thompson Rivers University Faculty of Law, Kimberly Gee was recognized by the Canadian […]

We write today to ask for clarity from each of your Ministries with respect to the announcement made by School District No 79 Cowichan Valley (SD79) to put in place overt video surveillance on the interior and exterior of their school buses, and with respect to the broader issues that this announcement raises. This project was announced by the school district in April of this year via Facebook and was made possible by a $150,000 allocation in provincial and federal funding from the “Safe Return to Class Fund.”