Access to Information

Topic: Access to Information


Pope Francis’s tour came with a minimum $55 million price tag for Ottawa

A family member of residential school survivors says the minimum $55-million price tag for the Pope’s visit to Canada last year feels like another slap in the face for Indigenous people. “Think of all the money that could have gone to survivors, all of the money that could have gone to healing, all of the […]

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‘Nobody’s perfect,’ Joly says of Afghan evacuation, as Tories question plaque

OTTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says it was “a messy situation” trying to help Afghans escape the Taliban, as Conservatives questioned her department’s decision to install a plaque commemorating the August 2021 airlift. “I can’t turn back the clock,” Joly told the House of Commons immigration committee, where she was questioned about the […]

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Saskatchewan First Nation comes to B.C. to talk about taking over child welfare

VANCOUVER — Solomon Reece spent a decade in Vancouver before being elected as a councillor to the Key First Nation in Saskatchewan last year. While he remained connected to his First Nation, Reece was raised on a Gulf Island off the West Coast and said going from B.C. to his new position took some adjustment. […]

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Parliamentary committee summons Mark Zuckerberg over Meta’s threat to block news

OTTAWA — Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is being summoned by a parliamentary committee for the third time in four years — this time over the tech company’s threat to block news from Canadians on its social-media platforms. The decision comes a week after the company, which owns Facebook and Instagram, announced it would block news […]

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West spotlights North Korea rights abuses; China opposes

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States, its Western allies and experts shone a spotlight on the dire human rights situation and increasing repression in North Korea at a U.N. meeting Friday that China and Russia denounced as a politicized move likely to further escalate tensions on the Korean peninsula. China blocked the U.S. from […]

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New Arizona hotline sees few calls about race based lessons

PHOENIX (AP) — Only a handful of complaints out of hundreds of calls to a new state hotline for reporting race-based lessons have warranted investigation, Arizona’s top education official said Friday. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne told radio station KTAR News that the Arizona Department of Education found half a dozen complaints to […]

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Colorado proposal would cut public records costs for media

DENVER (AP) — As Colorado’s fall neared in 2021, reporter Jesse Paul wanted to peek behind the curtain of state prisons, submitting a request for a swath of documents regarding inmate deaths, injuries and staff violations — public records made available to ensure government transparency. But then the bill arrived, and Paul, a reporter at […]

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Internal documents show what RCMP considered ‘lessons learned’ from ‘Freedom Convoy’

OTTAWA — After policing the “Freedom Convoy,” the RCMP came away with lessons learned, newly released documents show — including the need to better prepare for the potential targeting of emergency phone lines. Briefing notes obtained by The Canadian Press under access-to-information laws also point to security pressures to protect leaders in Ottawa and detail […]

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The Online News Act could give Google and Meta too much influence over Canadian news orgs

This article was originally published on The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Disclosure information is available on the original site. Author: Sara Bannerman, Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Communication Policy and Governance, McMaster University Bill C-18, the Online News Act, could give Google and […]

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Newfoundland and Labrador telehealth line advises most callers to go see a doctor

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Reports from the company running Newfoundland and Labrador’s public health line show more than three-quarters of callers looking for advice about symptoms are told to seek emergency services or see a family doctor. The reports filed last year by Fonemed, which operates the province’s 811 HealthLine, show the service grappling with […]

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Supporting National Claims Research Directors

The B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association (FIPA) has been made aware of troubling requirements being imposed by Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affair Canada (CIRNAC) and Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) on First Nations researchers applying for access to those departments’ records for the purposes of validating historical claims against the federal government.   FIPA supports […]

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Regulators cut pressure on pipeline after Kansas oil spill

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — U.S. government regulators have stopped allowing a large part of the Keystone oil pipeline to operate at higher-than-normal pressures following a massive oil spill in northeastern Kansas in December. The order this week from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s pipeline safety arm covers 1,220 miles (1,963 kilometers) of the Keystone pipeline […]

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