FOI Redux & Valedictions

The Canadian Newspaper Association (CNA) recently published their annual Freedom of Information Audit which often catches my attention, as I prepared for this post I realized that I posted at the occasion of the 2007 audit. Unfortunately the FOI landscape does not appear to have become any easier to navigate. Official Ottawa has become more obstructionist in responding to requests and this attitude has spread throughout government officialdom with a few notable exceptions; however the federal government retains the top specialization in constructing information roadblocks, “Federal institutions received lower grades than their provincial and municipal counterparts…” When requests are deemed acceptable, excessive amounts of money are being charged, who knew photocopying was such an expensive proposition? Or maybe someone needed to take a course to learn how to do so before responding to the request. From the beginning of the report, “Any commitment that exists in Ottawa to answering requests in a timely fashion is being overwhelmed by a tsunami of time extensions, and suggestions of political interference in the processing of requests under the Access to Information Act”. THE CNA press release contains some highlights, or low-lights depending on your perspective. Perhaps the Access to Information and Privacy Office needs a reminder of their stated principles. I would encourage anyone interested to take a closer look at the report.

Not wanting to end a sunny friday on a negative note I would like to follow up on last week’s post re: Schulich Law Convocation with a link to the ceremonies with a recommendation to take a few minutes and watch an exceptional valedictory address by one of our grads, Gerry Quigley. Unfortunately, I cannot queue it up, so forward roughly 2/3 of the way through and shortly after the end of the granting of the degrees the address begins. There has been a recent debate at this site about law school graduates, this offers an opportunity to try and understand their perspective a bit more.