Vancouver – A non-partisan coalition, including FIPA, the BC Civil Liberties Association, and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, has come together to warn British Columbians that it is not just big spenders who are at risk under the new BC Election Act. The Election Act’s third party advertising restrictions have opened a nightmare of arbitrary enforcement, […]

Catch up on our activities in our spring update for members. In this issue: Free to Speak Campaign urges mass demonstrations of “civil obedience” Campaign for Open Government starts 2009 push E-Health Records roll out in BC without promised privacy protections Olympic Surveillance legacy no gift to privacy rights Enhanced Driver Licences Enhanced Identification Cards […]

BC FIPA presented its submissions to the House of Commons Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics (ETHI) regarding Information Commissioner Robert Marleau’s 12 reform proposals. FIPA’s view [is] that we now have in this country a consensus that Commissioner Reid’s draft bill, with the addition of full Order making power for the Information […]

The B.C. government is getting ready to contract out its computer nerve-centre to a U.S. company, says B.C.’s biggest public-sector union. EDS Advanced Solutions, a B.C. subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard-EDS, is negotiating with the province to operate the mainframe computer servers at the government’s Victoria facility. The plan concerns FIPA because the USA Patriot Act enables […]

MPs have been given a new blueprint to renovate the country’s antiquated access-to-information law. New Democrat MP Pat Martin has introduced a private member’s bill that includes reform measures Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised more than three years ago, but has yet to act on. The bill hit the floor on the eve of a […]

Congratulations! The B.C. government — the one that promised to be “the most open, accountable and democratic government in Canada” — has just granted your freedom of information request. You open the package of documents and find a notice that seems to say you can’t make the information public without the government’s permission. “Permission of […]

BC’s Information and Privacy Commissioner has issued a special report criticizing the provincial government for its failure to tackle the chronic problem of delay in responding to freedom of information requests. In his first annual report on FOI performance, “Timeliness of Government’s Access to Information Responses”, released on February 13, David Loukidelis describes what he […]

Vancouver – A non-partisan coalition, including FIPA, the BC Civil Liberties Association, and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, has come together to warn British Columbians that it is not just big spenders who are at risk under the new BC Election Act. The Election Act’s third party advertising restrictions have opened a nightmare of arbitrary enforcement, […]

A ruling handed down on January 13 by the Ontario Court of Appeal is “a landmark decision that upholds the principles of openness and transparency as applied to electronic records,” said Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian. The Court allowed appeals by the Commissioner and a Toronto Star reporter from a Divisional Court ruling […]

The Canadian Newspaper Association, Canadian Taxpayers Federation and FIPA are urging Prime Minister Harper to follow the lead of President Barack Obama and act immediately to end the access-to-information crisis in Canada. On his first day in office, President Obama issued new orders designed to improve the U.S. government’s openness and transparency. The first directive […]

Liberals try bureaucratic shuffle to meet criticism on information response By Vaughn Palmer Vancouver Sun (link to full column below) The B.C. Liberals are moving to centralize all incoming requests under the provincial information law, saying it is an attempt to address chronic complaints about government failure to respond in a timely fashion. The edict […]

The suspension of Parliament in the ongoing political crisis is not likely to interfere with a much-needed anti-spam bill tabled earlier this year. Bill S-202, the Anti-Spam Act, which received its second reading in early December before Parliament was prorogued, would crack down on spam by prohibiting the sending of commercial emails to Canadians without […]