As we approach the end of 2014, it’s time for our annual check-in on the progress that’s been made for our information rights. It’s been a busy year for Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham, who has made a number of suggestions for important amendments to improve access and privacy laws in this province. Sadly, […]

The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner has ordered the release of records requested by BC FIPA related to the mysterious Ministry of Health data breach case. FIPA had requested: Data sharing and other agreements involving the Ministry and four named individuals; Correspondence between the Ministry and the four named individuals relating to the […]

NEWS RELEASE September 23, 2014 BC government “going backward” on FOI performance-Commissioner’s report   VANCOUVER, September 23, 2014–In a scathing report released earlier today, Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham calls out the BC government on historic delays in responding to Freedom of Information requests. https://www.oipc.bc.ca/special-reports/1696 Entitled A Step Backwards, the Commissioner’s report indicates the […]

Request for an investigation into the failure of the BC Government to release information about the Mount Polley tailings pond, contrary to s.25 of FIPPA. Download the complaint

NEWS RELEASE August 11, 2014 BC Government had obligation to release tailings pond info BC FIPA asks Info and Privacy Commissioner to investigate BC government (in)action   VANCOUVER, B.C.—The BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association has filed a complaint with the BC Information and Privacy Commissioner over the BC government’s failure to release information […]

FIPA’s submission to Phases 1 and 2 of a consultation by the federal government on the government’s initiatives under the Open Government Partnership. We resubmitted our comments from previous consultations, and emphasized again the need to update the Access to Information Act. Download submission

Access in the Academy, developed by the Freedom of Information and Privacy Association and Mike Larsen of Kwantlen Polytechnic University (Instructor, Dept. of Criminology), and generously funded by the Law Foundation of British Columbia, is a brand new educational resource that provides a unique and practical look at how researchers, students, and others in the […]

An example letter for making a federal Access to Information Request. Download

Supreme Court of Canada decision on the use of the section 13 ‘policy advice’ exemption in Ontario’s FIPPA, widens ‘black hole’ for government information.   Download release

In a letter sent today, BC FIPA, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF), and Newspapers Canada are urging Prime Minister Stephen Harper to bring the PMO and Ministers’ offices under the Access to Information Act, after Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault identified three ministerial staff as having interfered with a number of ATI requests. The letter signed […]

The Department of Public Works denies the Federal Information Commissioner’s request for an RCMP investigation of ministerial interference in FOI requests.   Download release

What do you do when you want to make sure documents can’t be requested under freedom of information law? Well if you’re the BC Government, you need only utter one magic word: transitory. Government policy states that a transitory record is one that relates to “temporary usefulness […] needed only for a limited period of […]