“At the Crossroads between Gridlock and the Highway to Innovation” is how the Interim Information Commissioner of Canada Suzanne Legault has described the current state of access to government information. If we do not quickly rectify the numerous weaknesses in the system, we run the risk of deviating from democracy and having a breakdown on the highway to innovation.
This consensus emerged from a series of public discussions that took place in
Ottawa between September 28 and October 1 as part of national Right to Know Week. These discussions helped identify the current access to information issues from various perspectives and come up with solutions.
During the opening public assembly, renowned activists (Kerry Pither, Dark Days: The Story of Four Canadians Tortured in the Name of Fighting Terror) and journalists (David Akin, David McKie and Jeff Sallot) criticized the lengthy delays and the lack of transparency that information seekers often face. Examples in hand, they discussed the resulting implications for democracy, the social and economic well-being of Canadians, and even their security abroad. “In our knowledge-based society, productivity is the main challenge,” said David Akin. “Access to information contributes to knowledge and makes us more productive.”
UK Journalist Ben Leapman from the Sunday Telegraph explained how he and two other colleagues exposed the MP spending scandal that recently rocked the British Parliament. Meanwhile, Jennifer Bell from VisibleGovernment.ca presented various projects and tools to improve the speed, quality and user-friendliness of proactive disclosure.
During a conference for parliamentarians, other speakers pointed to the efforts made by the cities of
Vancouver and
Toronto to create portals to provide access to a vast array of information that may be reused for other purposes. Contrasting these efforts of digital transparency at the municipal level, prominent expert Stanley Tromp (
www3.telus.net/index100/foi
) demonstrated just how far federal legislation on access lags behind and made the case for reform.
“As the world moves forward on transparency,
Canada appears to be marching in the opposite direction,” said Mr. Tromp, “the incentive for transparency cannot succeed without direction from the top.” To this end, Senator Francis Fox, the host of the conference and former minister responsible for adopting the Act of Parliament, recommended that deputy ministers and senior federal officials be assessed according to their institution’s ability to rapidly process requests for access to information.
A legal panel also brought together prominent experts of all stripes, who provided their own suggestions for improving the legislative framework and regulations regarding access to information. All kinds of approaches were raised, including direct court action, strengthening the Information Commissioner’s powers, and even entrenching the right to know in the Charter!
Jim Bronskill from the Canadian Press suggested simple and practical measures to resolve the “
ATI Top Ten List.” Finally, Paul Szabo,
Chair of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, concluded that institutions must disclose information even before being asked for access to information.
Lastly, an international panel made up of representatives from influential organizations such as ARTICLE 19, the
Carter
Center and the Canadian Commission for UNESCO presented recent initiatives to promote access to information to various countries, international and environmental organizations in order to create favourable conditions for “access without borders.”
See the podcasts of these various events, take a look at the presentations or read the texts on the Access to Information collaborative Web site at
righttoknow.ca
.
