Six Tory Cabinet ministers take to road to showcase Harper government’s communications style

A quick look at how Tory Cabinet ministers last June communicated a Canadian Border Services Agency announcement of increases to the personal travel exemption limit of goods that could be brought back into Canada.

Privacy breaches underline weak, secretive federal data protection laws

Human Resources Canada’s loss of a hard drive with personal information of some 583,000 also raises questions about how much do we really know about the vast amount of personal information that the Canadian government or other governments hold.

Rubin: Idle No More takes on Harper’s dismantling of First Nations’ home base

A new kind of social media-savvy, youthful native rank-and-file leadership is emerging and it feels duped by Harper’s approach with his government’s fast-tracked legislative enactments and the government’s coordinated drive to resurface the look of reserves.

Feds won’t help Truth and Reconciliation Commission gather millions of government records for Research Centre, so it’s going to court

It’s important that a country be able to keep records of its past publicly accessible.

Supreme Court poised to hear key access-to-information legal challenge

It’s a key case expected to be held next year as the outcome of how broad policy advice secrecy claims will affect how much public access there is to government records in all Canadian jurisdictions.

Tories targeting First Nations and unions for fuller public disclosure

There is no comparable requirement for posting the exact salaries and benefits of government employees or the details of all transactions occurring between Ottawa’s legion of lobbyists and politicians and officials.

Stark contrast found in Canada’s two-tier federal access to information system; on average 120 days late with blackouts and fewer public records

Canada’s Access to Information Act turns 30, but who’s looking or caring

Parliament has done nothing for the Access to Information Act which can be a legal weapon that sheds light into corrupt practices, government waste, unhealthy consumer and environmental situations, and government privacy intrusions.

Is a massive destruction of records on the way?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s rush to downgrade federal information holdings and services raises that concern.

Canada’s Health Infoway is too secretive

We desperately need to change the way our federal, provincial, and territorial laws readily exclude and exempt basic financial and consumer data, avoiding public and Parliamentary scrutiny.

Supreme Court ruling more often in favour of greater secrecy

In a February judgment, the Supreme Court essentially broadened and strengthened the third-party notification privileges corporations have that delay release and second lowered the evidentiary standards that the government needs to follow to show that records should remain secret. This will result in much more government data being kept secret under access legislation.

The parallel worlds of what’s public and private

Throwing the public the equivalent of two cute pandas or X-number of new data sets now and then, or undercutting Parliamentary committees’ work is not the equivalent of an open government partnership with the public.

Feds enter Twitter/YouTube era: one more Harper government messaging tool

The Privy Council Office approves several departments’ plans to create their own YouTube/Twitter sites.

Ottawa’s love of envelopes: from Brian Mulroney to the CBC

Occupy Ottawa: against records destruction

No doubt the government of the day has the right to legislate and to remake policy, but eroding Ottawa’s shaky information management practices further for political reasons is not without penalties and does have some far-reaching negative consequences.

Harper legacy? It ain’t transparency

The International Conference of Information Commissioners held in Ottawa last week helped illustrate just how far behind Canada has fallen in progressive access to information circles. It’s not good.

Transparency suffers supremely, Supreme Court labelling PMO/minister offices' records 'political' a secrecy bonanza

The time to push for transparency is in the first year of a new government's mandate.

Shining a light on PM aides: before and after Bruce Carson

The 2006 background checking guidelines, obtained from PCO under the Access to Information Act, do apply to advisers to the PCO as well as Cabinet ministers, Supreme Court justices and very senior officials. And they do include checking criminal and polic

Temporary secrecy outrage hits Ottawa, but it becomes a key factor in defeat of Harper government, feds' weak offerings

Outrage over excessive secrecy and what to do about it has become pure theatre in Ottawa, especially in a super-charged election atmosphere. Don't expect now that any of the parties intend to do much to change excessive secrecy in Ottawa.

The myth of access to information

There is no doubt that Canada's ranking would be near the bottom. But this begs the question: did Canada ever rank near the top or really have progressive access legislation?