The Canadian government’s lack of transparency is reflected in law enforcement agencies’ delays handling of access to information requests, a Calgary journalism professor says.
Sean Holman calls access to information officials “blackout bureaucrats.”
“Their job is to apply exemptions and exclusions in under the Access to Information Act,” the Mount Royal University academic said. “That’s not access to information; that’s censorship.”
Both the RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency say the number of requests they receive under the act outweighs their ability to respond and meet legislative requirements.
“There are so many opportunities to violate the spirit of the law that you don’t need to break the law to violate the sprit,” the former Victoria-based investigative reporter said.
“Law enforcement in this country have never been fans of freedom of information,” he said. “The police lobbied against it. They are not supportive of freedom of information.”
But, said Natalie Bartlett, spokeswoman for the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada, complaints about systemic delays have been a feature of the system since 1984, the year after Parliament passed the legislation.
Bartlett said In 2017-2018, the office received 1,249 delay or time extension complaints, compared to 1,312 exemption complaints and 37 cabinet confidence exclusion complaints.
