A retired Edmonton man is making waves behind one of the largest access-to-information requests in the province. But he says he isn’t trying to rock the boat, he just thinks Albertans should know the quality of the water resource they own.
“We have to ask, who are we really protecting,” asked former chemical engineer Don Davidson about the decision of Alberta Health and Wellness not to release water well data.
“Are we protecting the few who might not be looking after their wells? I hope not.”
A public inquiry has been called by the provincial privacy commissioner to help decide if 25 years of microbiological and chemistry data held by AHW should be made public.
Davidson triggered the inquiry following a review of AHW’s decision to deny his May 2010 access to information (FOIP) request.
“I feel it’s important that to protect our water resources, that information pertaining to those resources is made public,” said Davidson.
“Albertans own that water. . .If you own something I feel you have the right to know what the quality of what you own is.”

Read more:Why conceal water well data from Albertans?: retiree | Front Page News | Medicine Hat News.

An issue, which for years obsessed Ontario’s Liberal government and to some degree also its Conservative Opposition – and which remains unresolved – has utterly dropped off the political and public radar.

In the 90-minute televised leaders’ debate this week, just days before voters go to the polls, the word “Caledonia” wasn’t spoken.

Nor has the native occupation of a housing development in that small southwestern Ontario town been any kind of campaign issue.

via Ontario preoccupied with keeping Caledonia information secret.

The Harper government is appealing a court decision that could reveal a secret RCMP dossier on Tommy Douglas, the father of Canadian medicare.
Photograph by: File Photo, Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — The Harper government is appealing a court decision that could reveal a secret RCMP dossier on Tommy Douglas, the father of Canadian medicare.

In August, the Federal Court ordered Library and Archives Canada to review its decision to conceal parts of the dossier on Douglas, who was monitored by federal spies for more than 30 years.

Federal Court Judge Simon Noel issued a 90-page ruling that gave the institution 30 days to provide an explanation if there are additional documents, or to determine if there are pages missing from the dossier since several pages identified during the hearing “appeared to be missing,” Federal Court media spokesman Andrew Baumberg, said recently.

Read more:

Federal government appeals decision on secret Tommy Douglas dossier.

An audit testing the openness of government says it took Halifax Regional Municipality 129 days to release a copy of a contract with the company that did $1 million of repair work on the exterior of city hall.

Halifax and other municipal governments in Nova Scotia received an F grade in Newspapers Canada’s national freedom of information audit released Tuesday.

The audit, in its sixth year, measured all levels of government’s response time and completeness of information provided for standard freedom of information requests.

The audit found just three of a total of 15 freedom of information requests made to the municipalities of Bridgewater, Cape Breton, Halifax, Truro and Yarmouth were granted in full.

“Essentially, you have a system that allows a simple request like ‘How much are you spending to fix city hall? What are the terms of the contract?’ . . . just get gummed up and take months,” said Fred Vallance-Jones, an assistant professor of journalism at the University of King’s College in Halifax.

“If you were an ordinary requester, you would probably just give up,” said Vallance-Jones, who carried out the audit with a team of student journalists.

More here: Municipalities fail openness test – NovaScotia – TheChronicleHerald.ca.

Canada’s biggest science funder been given a big black mark by one of world’s leading science journals for keeping secret the names of scientists who fake experiments and studies.

“Canada’s practices take privacy concerns too far,” says an editorial published in Thursday’s edition of the British journal Nature that calls on Canada to make public the identities of researchers who commit misconduct.

It takes issue with the way the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council will not name scientists who have engaged in “seemingly egregious” misconduct at Canadian universities.

‘Nature’ editorial aims at secrecy of agency.

Today marks International Right to Know Day. In addition, Premier Darrell Dexter has proclaimed this Nova Scotia’s Right to Know Week. Both celebrate citizens’ right to access information: to know how governments use information and how they spend taxpayers’ money.

A recent editorial (“SWSDA bankruptcy: How to de-develop an economy,” Sept. 17) regarding the demise of the South West Shore Development Authority triggered the importance of highlighting this day for Nova Scotians. The editorial reminded us that the financial ruin of the authority was in part due to the fact that “public money has been eaten up to pay for lawsuits … [one] from its perverse and failed attempt to shield itself from provincial freedom-of-information rulings.”

More here: Celebrating Right to Know Day – Letters – TheChronicleHerald.ca.

VANCOUVER — Less than two weeks prior to Vancouver’s Stanley Cup riot, British Columbia Solicitor General Shirley Bond turned down a crowd-control funding request made jointly by the Vancouver, Delta and Abbotsford police chiefs, who told her Canucks celebration “fan interest surpasses that of the 2010 Winter Olympics.”

A freedom of information request by the Vancouver Province shows on June 3, Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu, Delta Chief Jim Cessford and Abbotsford Chief Bob Rich wrote to Bond saying “street celebrations have become entrenched,” in each city during the Canucks playoff run, but “in contrast to the Winter Olympics, we do not have any senior government support for the significant policing cost.”

MORE: B.C. solicitor general denied police request for crowd-control funding.

Commissioner marks International Right to Know Day

More: UK Freedom of Information Blog: Commissioner marks International Right to Know Day.

The Information Commissioner’s Office has published guidance on freedom of information legislation and potentially valuable research information for the higher education sector.

The guidance has been issued following recommendations made in the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee report on the disclosure of data about climate change involving the University of East Anglia.

MORE: ICO issues FOI research guidance in wake of ‘climategate’ – Business – Macworld UK.