Open public data necessary for functioning democracy

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/11/2015 (3079 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There may be a new era coming in our federal access-to-information laws, and that would be a good thing, However, it’s one thing to promise access in a campaign and another to follow through when in government. We’ll have to wait and see.

Information laws exist to protect our collective right to access public records. Every citizen and permanent resident in Canada has the right to request information from federal, provincial/territorial and municipal governments. All orders of government are subject to the protocols set out in the Access to Information Act (ATIA) at the federal level and Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation at the provincial/territorial and municipal levels.

These legal instruments allow individuals to request records, policy documents and correspondence that show how government agencies operate. ATI/FOI files are different than the open-source material found on government websites, in the rhetorical speeches of politicians, and in the sanitized information packages of public relations experts. ATI/FOI files illustrate how power operates in democratic societies and can expose the often-secretive dealings between state entities and political players.

There have been a number of instances where Canadians have become aware of an issue of public interest because of information uncovered using access-to-information laws. For example, early in 2014, documents obtained by the John Howard Society of Canada revealed inmates with mental illnesses were being locked up in prolonged isolation and “grossly inadequate” conditions in Canadian mental-health facilities. Also in 2014, a CBC News investigation unearthed a report about a TransCanada gas pipeline that ruptured in northern Alberta. The investigation showed federal regulators had intentionally buried the report, likely because of government concerns about TransCanada’s negotiation of the contentious Keystone XL Pipeline proposal. One could cite thousands of similar ATIA stories dating back to the law’s inception in 1983.

While recent successes of ATI/FOI-based research are noteworthy, journalists, researchers and activists obtained these results in spite of numerous challenges associated with access-to-information laws and practices in Canada.

Under the Harper government, access to information was severely curtailed at the federal level. Almost all indicators of a well-functioning ATI system went into decline.

On a number of measures, such as the scope of Canada’s ATI legislation (e.g., the number of excluded agencies and the capacity of governments to evade the laws), Canada ranks near the bottom of 100 countries analyzed. There are also blanket exemptions for certain political offices. Any time the information sought involves the work of a minister’s office or a cabinet decision, it can be withheld. Increasingly, government documents are claimed to be a matter of cabinet or ministerial confidence, and some bodies, such as the Prime Minister’s Office, are not subject to ATI laws at all.

It is not only the federal government that is struggling with poor ATI performance. In October, British Columbia’s information and privacy commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, published a scathing report on the systematic failings of the province’s FOI regime, highlighting record destruction and deleted emails. Last year, the Alberta government was accused of deliberately interfering with FOI requests. Manitoba FOI laws allow incredible discretion, enabling the government to withhold documents that might be potentially embarrassing.

All these challenges point to how government agencies continue to manipulate and control information in Canada. Indeed, the annual FOI audits conducted by Newspapers Canada continue to unearth deficiencies in access-to-information regimes across the country.

The new Liberal government has claimed it will increase proactive disclosure of information, eliminate many ATI fees, expand the role of the access-to-information commissioner at the federal level, open up the PMO and ministers’ offices to ATI requests and review the ATIA itself. Sunny ways, as it were. Such changes would be welcome. Such changes would help create momentum at the provincial level as well.

But recall that Stephen Harper himself pledged to do much the same before he was elected and then did almost the opposite while leader of the country. It is intriguing how power bends the will of even the most well-intentioned politicians. There are lots of reasons to doubt the sun will start shining brightly on government with this change of leader and party.

That is why ATI and FOI remain so important; they are some of the only correctives to pervasive government secrecy we have.

 

Jamie Brownlee and Kevin Walby are the editors of Access to Information and Social Justice: Critical Research Strategies for Journalists, Scholars and Activists.