FOI

In the past week a somewhat disturbing story has been making headlines about access to information in Canada or rather, the lack thereof. An initiative of the Canadian Newspaper Association (CNA) the CNA Freedom of Information Audit 2007 shows “…persistent delays and misunderstandings in the very system that is designed to guarantee the public’s right to information about government decisions.”

For those of you who attended the CALL/ACBD conference in Ottawa last May you may remember a session entitled Are we becoming a secret society? Press Bans, Privacy and Access to Information. For those of you who missed it, the link is above.

In light of these results I thought I would post some information about how to gain access to information in Canada.

• 2007 FREEDOM OF INFORMATION AUDIT (pdf)
• ENQUÊÊTE NATIONALE SUR L’ACCèS À L’INFORMATION edition 2007 (pdf)

• Canada Access to Information and Privacy Homepage
• Using the Federal Access to Information and Privacy Act
• Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
• Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario
• Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia
  

• Nova Scotia Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Review Office

Happy Information Hunting!