In this issue: Big Wins, New Challenges: 2012 in Transparency A new year means new ways to support FIPA Privacy advocates raise red flags over C-12 surveillance measures New parliamentary study tackles big data, social media, and privacy Information Commissioner looks to overhaul Access to Information Act BC Commish tries to limit license plate surveillance […]

BC FIPA has sent its submission to the Committee on Access to Information, Privacy, and Ethics on the impacts of social media and ‘Big Data’ on privacy and the rights of citizens and the policy considerations that should be explored by the Committee in the context of amendments to the Personal Information Protection and Protection […]

Since September, Canada’s Information Commissioner Suzanne Legaut has been running a broad public consultation, seeking out suggestions for how to modernize our woefully out-of-date Access to Information Act (ATIA). Any individual or organization can participate in this critically important process. But your chance to speak up ends soon. Submissions to the consultation process close on […]

In a report released last week, B.C.’s Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham took a stiff shot at the use of Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) technology by the Victoria Police Department. Valuable as Denham’s efforts are, however, it will likely take more than her work alone to bring this ever-expanding surveillance system back in […]

BC FIPA has responded to the questions posed by the Information Commissioner of Canada in relation to the consultation on needed reforms to the Access to Information Act (ATIA) The consultation is being undertaken in the context of the 30th anniversary of the passage of the ATIA. BC FIPA proposes multiple amendments to the ATIA […]

Universities and other public bodies can still create independent companies whose records are beyond the reach of province’s FOI law, more than a year after the former Minister of Open Government promised to deal with the problem. Last October, Information and Privacy commissioner Elizabeth Denham wrote a letter to then-minister Margaret MacDiarmid to highlight a […]

In this issue: 2012 BC Informatiion Summit tackles “Government 2.0” Just Rewards: Darrell Evans awarded Grace-Pépin Access to Information Award OIPC to investigate government’s failure to post FOI requests after FIPA complaint BC election law still has constitutional problems despite BC Court of Appeal ruling Lock Down: wall of secrecy around Ministry of Health privacy […]

FIPA is calling on Premier Christy Clark to call back the Legislature to amend election legislation the BC Court of Appeal has just declared unconstitutional. The government made a number of changes to the Election Act during the spring sitting, and then referred those changes to the Court of Appeal for an opinion on their […]

According new research by FIPA, based on statistics published by the Chief Information Officer of BC, the last decade has seen a dramatic increase in the number of general FOI requests returned with ‘no responsive records.’ In a complaint to the Information and Privacy Commissioner, FIPA points out that overall non-responsive rates jumped from effectively […]

Responding to a recent complaint filed by FIPA regarding the BC Government’s failure to post approximately two thirds of completed FOI requests–against its own policy–BC Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham will be looking into the problem as part of her current evaluation of the province’s Open Government Initiative. In a letter to FIPA dated August 27th, […]

Only a year after announcing a number of open government initiatives to much fanfare, Christy Clark’s government is failing to meet its own standards for posting completed freedom of information requests. According to a complaint filed with the Information and Privacy Commissioner by FIPA, 67 percent of completed general FOI requests have not been posted […]

BC FIPA filed an Intervener Factum on August 15, 2012 in the Reference concerning the constitutionality of amendments to provisions of in the Election Act, RSBC 1996, c. 106 regarding election advertising by third parties. BC FIPA argues that there should be a minimum spending threshold to trigger provisions in the Act requiring third parties […]