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“To have to FOI the Board of Education is pathetic,” said Fracasso.
The Freedom of Information request was part of a series of motions, passed unanimously during the Board of Selectmen’s meeting Monday night. The thrust of these motions was to resolve the ongoing dispute between the Board of Selectmen and Board of Education, regarding the latter’s financial state.
Come Clean, Premier Campbell
HST questions for BC Liberals after censored documents released draw unbelievable answers.
By Bill Tieleman, Yesterday, TheTyee.ca
“Secrecy and a free, democratic government don’t mix.” — Harry Truman, U.S. president 1945-53
The B.C. Liberal government has got a secret.
Actually, many secrets — all of them about who knew what and when regarding the sudden imposition of the Harmonized Sales Tax on July 23, 2009 — just two months after a provincial election when the B.C. Liberals strongly denied the HST was being considered.
As of last week — thanks only to Freedom of Information requests filed by the Victoria press gallery that took over a year to obtain — we now do know that B.C. Finance Minister Colin Hansen received a lengthy briefing note on the HST on March 12, 2009 that said the HST could lead to five years of higher unemployment and lower economic growth.
FULL ARTICLE: http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2010/09/07/ComeCleanCampbell/
Oshawa council spends expense cash on BlackBerries, advertising, meals, galas
Newsdurhamregion.com
Oshawa This Week recently filed a Freedom of Information request to obtain line-by-line details of what Oshawa councillors and the mayor bought
Image via Wikipedia Jagdeo again promises broadcast, FOI laws: “By Stabroek staff | August 31, 2010
Broadcast and Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation will be passed in the next session of Parliament, President Bharrat Jagdeo said yesterday, in the latest of a series of promises.
Asked during an informal interview at the International Conference Centre, Jagdeo said the legislation would soon be tabled in the National Assembly. “As soon as Parliament comes out of recess…freedom of information… and the broadcast legislation will be passed,” he said.
In April last year, during the Summit of Americas in Trinidad, Jagdeo told reporters that the FOI legislation would be tabled in the National Assembly within two months. In October the same year, Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon pledged that the FOI Bill and the long-delayed broadcast legislation were among bills that would be tabled during the last parliamentary session.
Image by Jessicamulley via Flickr MPs abuse watchdog staff over new expenses regime
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) has revealed the way their staff were treated by MPs as a result of the new rules on expenses.
The scheme came into effect on 7 May 2010, and was devised by the independent watchdog to ensure that expenses are based on reimbursement as opposed to “paying allowances”.
As a result of a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, the IPSA has published a document which reveals the extent to which MPs and Houses of Commons employees treated watchdog staff when they were handling their expenses. It revealed that IPSA staff reported ten separate incidents of abuse, which included an MP repeatedly calling the new systems an “abortion”, another individual striking the laptop of his facilitator’s desk and one MP using expletives to one IPSA staff member and said they would “murder someone today”.
FULL ARTICLE: http://www.thegrapevinemagazine.com/?newsid=3170
“There is a general global trend toward more transparency. Austria lags behind in this regard because it has a weak and poorly implemented access to information.” (Aug 11 2010)
8/20/2010 11:05:00 AM
I should give credit where it’s due on PATI
Stuart Hayward
One of the most frequent criticisms in the world of politics is a focus on what someone failed to do. It’s also one of the worst. We hear it all the time: “So-and-so failed to mention this, or failed to do that, or failed to consider the other.” And then the critic counts that failure as condemnation, all the while ignoring all the things mentioned or done right.
FULL ARTICLE: http://bermudasun.bm/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=135&ArticleID=47668
From the UBC Blog:
http://blogs.ubc.ca/pkp2009/2009/07/12/publishing-freedom-of-information-the-open-government-records-plug-in-for-ojs/
From PKP International Scholarly Publishing Conferences:
http://pkp.sfu.ca/ocs/pkp/index.php/pkp2009/pkp2009/paper/view/131
Publishing Freedom of Information: The Open Government Records Plugin for OJS
Mark Weiler
Last modified: 2009-06-15
Abstract
In this presentation, I demonstrate a new plugin for OJS that allows journals to publish freedom of information requests. The plugin, named Open Government Records (OGR), offers users features that allow them to make, track, store, and publish freedom of information requests as well as the records disclosed by government bodies. Intended primarily as a research technology, OGR gives scholars and academics a way to access government materials. A working example of OGR will be demonstrated. I also provide a case study of how OGR is being used to inform the field of education and curriculum studies. In this case study, I use OGR to document curricular and learning programs that government bodies design for our public servants. An installation of Open Government Records can be found here: http://www.opengovernmentrecords.net/
Slide Show: http://www.slideshare.net/svoyer1/pkp2009-presentation
The head of a freedom of information advocacy group is complimenting one provincial minister and shaking his head at another.
Transportation Minister Bill Estabrooks should be congratulated for ordering the release of studies around whether to build a new trade centre, said Darce Fardy, head of the Right to Know Coalition and former freedom of information review officer for the province.
Department staff had been heavily censoring the reports before Estabrooks’ decree.
FULL ARTICLE: http://www.metronews.ca/halifax/local/article/518073–coalition-head-not-buying-more-s-reasons
