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.

TORONTO — A new audit shows Canadians are still facing challenges when trying to get information in a complete and timely manner from various levels of government.

Newspapers Canada’s sixth annual National Freedom of Information Audit found that Canadians continue to have uneven access to what should be public information. The group represents Canada’s newspapers.

A student audit team found a wide variation in how quickly and completely various levels of government respond to requests for information.

The team made 354 requests on 40 topics to 11 federal departments and agencies, five provincial departments, 39 municipalities and 10 major hospitals.

It found Nova Scotia, P.E.I. and Yukon were the fastest responders and B.C. the slowest.

There was a marked difference Nova Scotia municipalities and provincial ministries in their responses to information requests. The municipalities received an F in both speediness and completeness, which provincial ministries received As in both areas.

Federal institutions completed 61 per cent of requests within the legally mandated 30 days, up from 50 per cent the previous year.

Some of the problems the audit revealed show the city of Winnipeg refusing to release contracts, claiming they were confidential, while Quebec denied even basic accountability information about top officials’ spending.

Newspapers Canada CEO John Hinds said the audit shines a light on uneven practices that are not in line with the spirit of freedom of information legislation.

The audit gave B.C. and New Brunswick F grades for their speed of disclosing information while the federal government earned a D.

Quebec got an F grade and Ontario a D for the completeness of disclosure while the Ottawa received a C in this category.

Freedom of Information Audit shows system slow, uneven – Front – TheChronicleHerald.ca.

A total refusal to release contracts in Winnipeg, Quebec’s denial of basic accountability information about top officials’ spending, passenger manifests for Ontario’s executive aircraft, and the federal government’s stubborn refusal to release data in a useful form are just some of the findings of the Newspapers Canada sixth annual National Freedom of Information Audit, which tests the openness of governments across the country.

View the 2011 Freedom of Information Audit »

The 2011 audit is the largest in the history of the project, with 354 requests on 40 topics sent to all three levels of government as well as to crown corporations and hospitals.At each level of government there were several identical requests. Institutions were not told they were being audited. The audit grades institutions on the speed and completeness of their responses.

“Because many of the requests were identical, the audit offers a unique comparison of different FOI handling across the country,” said Newspapers Canada chief executive officer John Hinds. “The audit shines a light on uneven practices that are not in line with the spirit of the legislation.”

The project was led by Fred Vallance-Jones, assistant professor of journalism at the University of King’s College in Halifax. A student audit team submitted and tracked the requests from January to May 2011.

2011 Freedom of Information Audit released | Newspapers Canada.

Government secrecy undermines democracy

September 26, 2011

CALGARY, AB, Sept. 26, 2011/Troy Media/ – Quebec has been shaken recently by the extent of the corruption allegations linking organized crime to construction and to political party financing. But while the bulk of media coverage has focused on the corruption, there is an equally troubling aspect: the secrecy surrounding the report itself.

via Government secrecy undermines democracy | Troy Media Corporation.