FIPA, together with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and Newspapers Canada, is urging the Parliamentary Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics (ETHI) to hold hearings into an abrupt RCMP decision to drop its criminal investigation into a federal Conservative staffer who deliberately blocked the release of documents requested under the Access to Information Act. […]

GOVERNMENT STAFFERS APPARENTLY ABOVE THE LAW Vancouver – A federal Conservative staffer who deliberately blocked the release of documents requested under the Access to Information Act will get away scot free after the RCMP decided to drop its investigation into the incident. He was facing the possibility of up to two years in jail and […]

The Vancouver police board will review the department’s policy of releasing information requested under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act simultaneously to both the requester and the public, after being told by FOI advocates it is not adhering to the spirit of the law. On Wednesday Vincent Gogolek, the executive director of […]

GOVERNMENT MOVES TO ROUTINELY RELEASE SOME INFORMATION, BUT LOTS OF RECORDS REMAIN BEHIND CLOSED DOORS With its new “Open Information – Open Data” policy, the BC government has taken a big step forward on how it releases information to the public. But according to the BC Freedom of information and Privacy Association, there is still […]

The law of diminishing returns is operating at full throttle at the BC Ferries Corporation. When it comes to FOI requests, it seems the more ferry officials look for controversial documents, the fewer they find. That would be one explanation for why BC Ferries originally responded to an FOI request from the BC Freedom of […]

BC FIPA has sent a submission the the Vancouver Police Board regarding the Vancouver Police Department’s (VPD) policy of simultaneous disclosure of responses to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. BC FIPA notes that the BC Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner concluded that this practice violates the fundamental purpose of the Freedom of Information […]

FOI WATCHDOG SAYS WRIST SLAP OPENS THE DOOR TO ABUSE BC’s Information and Privacy Commissioner has found BC Ferries’ FOI policy operates in a way that ‘frustrates the purposes of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act’, but has declined to do anything concrete about it. After being put back under the Act […]

TIME TO STOP LITIGATING AND START POSTING ROUTINELY, SAYS FIPA FIPA has won another important victory in forcing the provincial government to release contracts it makes with the private sector. In a decision handed down yesterday, the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner ordered the government to hand over most of the remaining parts […]

Liberal Party of Canada’s response to BC FIPA, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, and Newspapers Canada’s question regarding their position on ATI reform. A Liberal government will:   • Post all Access to Information requests, responses, and response times online at accesstoinformation.gc.ca;   • Immediately restore the long-form census;   • Make as many government datasets […]

Jack Layton’s response on behalf of the NDP to FIPA, CTF, and Newspapers Canada question regarding the party’s position on access to information reform. New Democrats are committed to improve the Access to Information system through a variety of measures that include increasing the powers of the Information Commissioner, speeding up the processing time of […]

The federal Access to Information system is in chaos, but the parties seeking office have said nothing about what they will do to fix it. FIPA, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and Newspapers Canada have sent a joint letter to to the party leaders asking them what they will do to combat an already a disastrous […]

RELEASING THE FULL $300 MILLION IBM CONTRACT WOULD END A SEVEN-YEAR LEGAL BATTLE AND BE A REAL DEMONSTRATION OF OPENNESS, SAYS FIPA Vancouver – BC’s new Minister for Open Government can take a big step toward real openness by routinely posting its multi-million dollar outsourcing contracts online, says the BC Freedom of Information and Privacy […]