Canada’s information less free, says report
Federal delays in responding to public requests are at a “crisis level”
and Canada lags behind many other countries on openness scale, says a recent report on freedom of information access laws worldwide.
A report on freedom of information access laws worldwide said federal delays in responding to public requests are at a “crisis level” and Canada lags behind many other countries on openness scale.
Excerpts of a Canadian Press story:
“Despite the problem, promises by the Conservative government to overhaul Canada’s Access to Information law were consigned to “the graveyard of needless study” and never implemented, leaving the 25-year-old act far from cutting edge, says the report released Sunday….”
“On 12 key points, Canada’s act fails to meet the international standards of freedom-of-information law set out in a document drafted by a London-based human rights organization in 1999 and later endorsed by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, the report says.
“The law also fails to conform to many key recommendations of at least 10 other global political organizations, such as the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the United Nations Development Agency.”
Links to the report are here.
