BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association
Your Data Your Rights
20260321 Access and Privacy Online
Your Access and Privacy Online News Summary for Saturday, March 21st.
This week, we begin with a troubling pattern that has been unfolding across Canada.
What started in British Columbia with Bill 9 is now being echoed elsewhere: governments and political actors chipping away at access-to-information and privacy rights while describing those changes as modernization, efficiency, or administrative reform.
Taken together, it looks less like a series of isolated reforms, and more like a broader race to the bottom — one where secrecy expands, accountability contracts, and the public is asked to accept it all as reasonable housekeeping.
Let’s dive in.
Also available through: PodBean, Apple iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, ListenNotes, Podchaser, Boomplay.
Writing: Shaun Fisk | Production: Patrick Farnsworth | Music: Breakmaster Cylinder
Send comments to: FIPAOnline @ fipa.bc.ca
You can support these efforts by subscribing or donating.
Full Show Links
FIPA Bill C-4
- House of Commons E-Petition
- Bill C-4 Dashboard
FIPA Network Update
- People’s Consultation on AI
Race to the Bottom – Canadian Shifts
- We’ve had enough secrets’: First Nations group opposes Ontario move to limit freedom-of-information laws
- Ontario to make premier, cabinet ministers’ records secret as it tightens FOI laws
- Vaughn Palmer: Information commissioner wrong in denying an NDP culture of secrecy
- Canada’s three main federal political parties are working together to fight voter privacy rights
- Friday the 13th, 2026 – A transparency horror show
Canadian Access to information and Whistleblowers
- Environment committee engaging in ‘junior high behaviour’: former climate advisers
- Why Canada is helping Canadians flee the Middle East — and what it costs
- Town claims provincial pressure on wharf project
- The Courier CHCO TV – https://chco.tv/wharf-assessment-shows-two-areas-of-major-concern/
- 15,000-plus students regularly skip school across Manitoba, leaked documents show
- Ontario plans to open high-occupancy vehicle lanes to all outside peak traffic times
- More details emerge on pay of Manitoba trade representative in Washington D.C.
- Via Rail ‘needs to improve its service’ despite solid management: auditor general
- The RCMP vs. the media: Bracken trial approaches its endgame
Canadian Privacy
- Manitoba government proposes new grocery rules, rent control, some hydro hikes
- Manitoba bill targets technology that could alter grocery prices for some shoppers
- Most Canadians want to ban or regulate algorithmic pricing, poll shows
- Town confirms CAO’s departure
- Drayton Valley and District Free Press – https://www.dvfreepress.com/
- Napanee council approves updated CCTV policy as camera network expands
- MD of Pincher Creek council briefs: Wildlife fencing concerns, invasive species prevention, social media policy
- Shootin’ the Breeze – https://shootinthebreeze.ca/
- Former local teacher a convicted sex offender
- Lakeside Leader – https://www.lakesideleader.com/,
- Halton Hills weighs whistleblower policy
US International Access and Privacy
- Iran-linked hackers take aim at US and other targets, raising risk of cyberattacks during war
- Hundreds of migrants are vanishing in the Mediterranean. Authorities are withholding information
- A media-rating company says a Trump agency is threatening its livelihood
- As Trump pushes deportations, immigration data becomes harder to find
Before we go
- Tax scams are on the rise. Here’s what to know
FIPA Updates
- Access and Privacy Online in the Classroom
Your Access and Privacy Online News Summary for Saturday, March 21st.
This week, we begin with a troubling pattern that has been unfolding across Canada.
What started in British Columbia with Bill 9 is now being echoed elsewhere: governments and political actors chipping away at access-to-information and privacy rights while describing those changes as modernization, efficiency, or administrative reform.
Taken together, it looks less like a series of isolated reforms, and more like a broader race to the bottom — one where secrecy expands, accountability contracts, and the public is asked to accept it all as reasonable housekeeping.
Let’s dive in.
Also available through: PodBean, Apple iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, ListenNotes, Podchaser, Boomplay.
Writing: Shaun Fisk | Production: Patrick Farnsworth | Music: Breakmaster Cylinder
Send comments to: FIPAOnline @ fipa.bc.ca
You can support these efforts by subscribing or donating.
Full Show Links
FIPA Bill C-4
- House of Commons E-Petition
- Bill C-4 Dashboard
FIPA Network Update
- People’s Consultation on AI
Race to the Bottom – Canadian Shifts
- We’ve had enough secrets’: First Nations group opposes Ontario move to limit freedom-of-information laws
- Ontario to make premier, cabinet ministers’ records secret as it tightens FOI laws
- Vaughn Palmer: Information commissioner wrong in denying an NDP culture of secrecy
- Canada’s three main federal political parties are working together to fight voter privacy rights
- Friday the 13th, 2026 – A transparency horror show
Canadian Access to information and Whistleblowers
- Environment committee engaging in ‘junior high behaviour’: former climate advisers
- Why Canada is helping Canadians flee the Middle East — and what it costs
- Town claims provincial pressure on wharf project
- The Courier CHCO TV – https://chco.tv/wharf-assessment-shows-two-areas-of-major-concern/
- 15,000-plus students regularly skip school across Manitoba, leaked documents show
- Ontario plans to open high-occupancy vehicle lanes to all outside peak traffic times
- More details emerge on pay of Manitoba trade representative in Washington D.C.
- Via Rail ‘needs to improve its service’ despite solid management: auditor general
- The RCMP vs. the media: Bracken trial approaches its endgame
Canadian Privacy
- Manitoba government proposes new grocery rules, rent control, some hydro hikes
- Manitoba bill targets technology that could alter grocery prices for some shoppers
- Most Canadians want to ban or regulate algorithmic pricing, poll shows
- Town confirms CAO’s departure
- Drayton Valley and District Free Press – https://www.dvfreepress.com/
- Napanee council approves updated CCTV policy as camera network expands
- MD of Pincher Creek council briefs: Wildlife fencing concerns, invasive species prevention, social media policy
- Shootin’ the Breeze – https://shootinthebreeze.ca/
- Former local teacher a convicted sex offender
- Lakeside Leader – https://www.lakesideleader.com/,
- Halton Hills weighs whistleblower policy
US International Access and Privacy
- Iran-linked hackers take aim at US and other targets, raising risk of cyberattacks during war
- Hundreds of migrants are vanishing in the Mediterranean. Authorities are withholding information
- A media-rating company says a Trump agency is threatening its livelihood
- As Trump pushes deportations, immigration data becomes harder to find
Before we go
- Tax scams are on the rise. Here’s what to know
FIPA Updates
- Access and Privacy Online in the Classroom