“Transparency does not guarantee accountability, but it makes it more possible,” Justice John Gomery wrote in his final report, released on February 1. FIPA applauds his call to make government more transparent and we urge Parliament to enact his recommendations swiftly in the upcoming legislative session. The last major progress in transparency was made in […]

FIPA has commissioned BC’s first-ever formal survey of people who have made requests for information under the province’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. The survey is designed to determine whether it has become easier or more difficult to obtain information under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIPP Act) […]

BC’s Freedom of Information Act is in dire need of updating and strengthening. A formal review of the act completed in 2004 should have yielded improvements, but the government has taken a puzzling detour. A Special Committee of the Legislature conducted a comprehensive review of the FOI act in 2004 and submitted a report with […]

The federal government got a lot more than it asked for when it commissioned former Supreme Court justice Gerard La Forest to study whether or not the offices of the federal Information Commissioner and Privacy Commissioner should be merged. Although these offices are merged in some provinces, it was not entirely clear what was pushing […]

Opposition leader Stephen Harper has announced that, if elected, the Conservatives will introduce major measures to increase federal transparency and accountability. The federal Liberals promised major initiatives to increase transparency, but FIPA and other watchdogs have taken them to task for introducing ineffective whistleblower legislation and failing to carry through with reform of the Access […]

Gordon McAdams, a BC government ecologist, was fired on his last day before retirement for filing confidential government documents with the Supreme Court of British Columbia. McAdams was dismissed for attaching confidential government records to an affidavit he filed in support of a court action to stop the province from building a road through endangered […]

Canadian Newspaper Association asks Information Commissioner to Investigate Secret Rules that Block Transparency The federal government is applying bureaucratic systems that filter access to information requests made by media and subject them to scrutiny that causes unfair delays, in violation of Canada’s Access to Information Act, Canadian Newspaper Association President and CEO Anne Kothawala said […]

BC FIPA endorses most of the recommendations for reform of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIPP Act) presented in the two reports Enhancing the Province’s Public Sector Access and Privacy Law (Special Committee to Review the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, 2004) and Privacy and the USA Patriot […]

BC Information and Privacy Commissioner David Loukidelis released his 2004/2005 annual report to the Legislature today and called on the BC government to enact legislation legally requiring public bodies to document their actions or decisions. “If governments are to be held accountable and the public’s right of access to government information is to be meaningful, […]

The Environmental Law Clinic (ELC) has asked B.C.’s Information and Privacy Commissioner to conduct a Public Inquiry into whether government discriminates against environmental groups that request government documents under the province’s Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation. ELC student Scott Giesbrecht made the request on June 23, 2005 on behalf of Sierra Legal Defence Fund and […]

Canada’s information watchdog leveled a blistering attack at the federal government in his annual report tabled Monday. John Reid said: A “deep distrust” of the federal freedom-of-information law remains entrenched within government. The government’s proposed whistleblowing legislation for the public service is actually a legal instrument for covering up alleged government wrongdoing for periods of […]

Canadians using freedom of information laws to find out how government decisions are affecting their daily lives are very likely to be denied, according to a national audit by the Canadian Newspaper Association. The CNA study found that while the federal government as well as Canada’s provinces and territories all have freedom of information legislation, […]