Multiple BC Governments committed to addressing the problem of deliberate record destruction that was revealed by the infamous triple delete scandal. They claim to have solved the issue and improved access to information by putting in place the Information Management Act and updating FOIPPA to include penalties for improper deletion of records.
Specifically, under FOIPPA, it is an offence to intentionally obstruct access to the records necessary to fulfill a request. Within Part 5.1—Offences:
Offence to willfully evade access provisions
65.3 A person who willfully conceals, destroys, or alters any record to avoid complying with a request for access to the record commits an offence.
This section, properly acted upon, may provide part of a solution to the issue. We trusted it might have been acted upon. Without information available online, we made a request for it. We chose a formal request to ensure we received a response backed by legislated guarantees and redress.
We sought to learn:
How does the Government monitor, track, or enforce an offence under 65.3? What are the policies and procedures for this?
Our FOI request language:
Regarding Section 65.3 of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, any available statistics or analyses pertaining to the enforcement of that provision. Policies or procedures regarding the same would also be appreciated. Please provide, in machine-readable format, if available. Date range: 2022.11.1-2022.11.
Insights gained:
No records were located responsive to our request.
This government is claiming success without taking action. Without any policies or procedures, it is difficult to understand how they enforce or comply with this section of the Act.
The concerns around the triple delete scandal haven’t been addressed. Their claims of doing so are disingenuous without action that includes policies and procedures. One could presume those would include mechanisms for monitoring, reporting, investigating, and responding to complaints about prospective offenders. If this has been delegated to the OIPC, that likewise should be able to be communicated and we would hope it has received additional resources for these activities.
There are countless metaphors for this; none are positive. Ultimately it appears this Government is keeping their heads in the sand and claiming victory because they’re in the dark.
Subsequent Action:
We are drafting a letter to the OIPC highlighting our concerns with the gap and requesting the Commissioner investigate the issue further, using his power under section 44 of the Act. Again, without any policies or procedures, it is difficult to understand how they address reports, monitor, or enforce this section of the Act.
We received:
The request was filed on 2023.02.01.
CTZ-2023-30295 was received on 2023.02.28
FIPA Request Number: 2023-016
This is post is a result of our access assessment research. We are getting meta with FOI, by using access requests to inform our research about access rights.
Have an idea for an access request that meets our criteria?
