Victoria, January 25, 2023 – Polling results released during Data Privacy Week reveal British Columbians’ views on freedom of information and privacy. “The public continues to see that a fee to file a request for information is unnecessary, and that legislative timelines should be met,” said BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association (FIPA) Executive […]

LONDON (AP) — Opposition parties and children’s advocates accused the U.K. government on Tuesday of putting vulnerable young people in danger, after authorities said scores of children who arrived in Britain as asylum-seekers have disappeared. Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick told lawmakers that more than 200 children and teenagers under 18 were missing from government-approved accommodation. […]

OTTAWA — The federal government does not have a willing partner to find a way to introduce fire codes on First Nation reserves, a newly released document shows. The senior director for the Indigenous Fire Marshal Service, however, says there are steps Ottawa can take now to better protect communities. “Doing nothing is not an […]

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said Monday that her personal cell phone number has been hacked and blamed it on the release of her Social Security number amid hundreds of documents that the House Jan. 6 committee released last year. The Republican governor, who is weighing a 2024 White House bid, […]

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A county in Washington inadvertently released nearly half a million partial Social Security Numbers when responding to a routine public records request in December, according to county officials. The Pierce County Auditor’s Office, which mistakenly released the sensitive data, said in a news release that the human error was quickly spotted […]

BOSTON (AP) — A subsidiary of health care company Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay nearly $10 million to settle allegations that it violated federal and state law by providing free products to a surgeon to induce him to use its products in procedures, prosecutors said Friday. Under the settlement with DePuy Synthes, the […]

Investigation Report 23-01: Access application fee six-month review While the review revealed mixed findings we were glad to have input and impact through our submission and pleased to see the report recognizes the fundamental barrier to access that the fees create. We look forward to prompt action by the Government to act upon these recommendations […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has never been so slow. For the first time, the justices have gone more than three months without resolving any cases in which they heard arguments, since their term began in early October. By this point, they always had decided at least one case, and usually a handful, according […]

OTTAWA — Global Affairs Canada plans to install a plaque commemorating Canada’s evacuation of Afghans and embassy staff when its capital Kabul fell to the Taliban, but critics argue that sends the wrong message. The plaque carried a $10,000 price tag and was approved in a July 2022 memorandum that The Canadian Press obtained through an access-to-information request. It […]

Ensuring people are empowered to access information is central to our mandate. That’s why we’re so pleased to continue working with Courthouse Libraries BC to make sure Freedom of Information 101 is available through their Vimeo platform and updated regularly. Check out this latest material here. This is a skills training webinar for newcomers to […]

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey on Tuesday denounced as “absurd” a decision by a Swedish prosecutor not to open an investigation into a protest by Kurds in central Stockholm where an effigy of the Turkish president was hung from a lamppost. Last week’s protest outside Stockholm City Hall drew an angry backlash from Turkey, a […]

HALIFAX — Nova Scotia’s opposition parties pushed Monday for more public accountability from the government over the province’s struggling hospital emergency departments. NDP Leader Claudia Chender called for Health Minister Michelle Thompson and provincial health authority CEO Karen Oldfield to appear before the legislature’s health committee on Thursday — a request that was later turned […]