oh Canada our home and secret land....from da red star.....
Culture of secrecy' around public data
Audit shows delays by government files and records prove hard to access
A Canadian Newspaper Association audit found that responses from government officials for information varied across the country, from outright denial of information to delays or requests for hefty fees
Sep. 23, 2006. 01:00 AM
ROBERT CRIBB
TORONTO STAR
The amount of public money paid in bonuses to hospital administrators is beyond the public's right to know in cities like Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.
Local crime statistics in places like Laval, Pembroke and Fredericton are a carefully guarded secret.
And inquiries from the public about the federal government's pandemic preparations are unworthy of a timely response from bureaucrats.
They're among the findings of a second annual test of government openness organized by the Canadian Newspaper Association. Over a period of two months, 60 journalists from 39 newspapers across the country visited city halls, police forces, hospitals and federal government offices to document how public officials respond to requests for public information.
While responses from government officials varied widely across the country, there was a disturbing inclination toward secrecy in many government offices, the audit found.
In all, basic questions about health-care spending, crime, pesticide use and emergency preparedness posed to government officials were denied in 31 per cent of cases, despite the fact the information requested was not controversial and should be readily available. In some cases, requests were met with lengthy delays or hefty fees.
"Governments cannot be held accountable when freedom of information laws are flouted," said Anne Kothawala, president and CEO of the Canadian Newspaper Association. "We're talking about a fundamental democratic right."
The CNA findings reflect the experiences of many individuals who have independently sought out government-held information that impacts their lives.
Rhonda Truckel has been fighting for six years to get access to a police file containing the details of her brother's murder. Art Middleton, her only sibling, was shot in the back of the head in 2000 in a Hamilton apartment building — a crime for which his killer pleaded guilty and is serving a life sentence.
The evidence gathered in the police investigation — autopsy and crime scene photos, forensic test results, notes and other documents — remain locked away from her despite formal requests to see them.
"I need to see it for closure. I know he's gone, but in my heart I need to know what happened," says Truckel through tears
Hamilton Police Services denied her original request and the Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner upheld the decision on appeal last year.
A clause in the province's freedom of information law prevented release of the records to anyone other than the executor of the deceased person's will until 30 years after death. Middleton didn't have a will. While a recent change to the law gives officials some discretion to release information for compassionate reasons to next of kin, it remains unclear whether Truckel will be eligible to see her brother's file.
"I'm his sister. I'm his blood. I'm the one who had to bury him. I think I have a right to know what happened to my brother."
Access to information held by police departments varied widely across the country, the audit found. Statistics on reported crimes and resolved cases — figures that are widely published in cities such as Toronto, Hamilton, Montreal and Ottawa — were shrouded in secrecy in other places.
In Pembroke, for example, police officials wanted $1,200 for the information. In Laval, it took 39 days, repeated calls and arguments with officials to get an incomplete answer. In all, close to 30 per cent of requests for the crime numbers were denied or slapped with fees.
Each request for information began with a visit to a government office, hospital, health district or police station, where reporters — acting as citizens but not concealing their identity as journalists — simply asked for the information. In the 112 in-person visits, 46 resulted in records being disclosed — a 41 per cent success rate.
The remaining 66 requests went to stage two of the audit — formal written requests for the information under the appropriate provincial or federal information law. In 35 cases, the information requested was partially or entirely denied, or there was no response within the legislated time limit. Conclusions were consistent with last year's findings that showed difficulties in collecting what should be easily accessible information.
The public's right to know is not being defended by information laws in Canada, says Sergio Poggione, a 15-year federal access to information director and president of the Canadian Access and Privacy Association, which represents officers at all levels of government who administer information requests from the public.
A lack of resources and training in government offices are part of the problem, he says. But perhaps the more serious challenge to government transparency is the attitude of many in the senior bureaucracy, he says.
"You're trying to get information for the public. But when we send our request up to (senior staff) they're very reticent to co-operate because they don't like the program in the first place," says Poggione, former director of the access to information and privacy for the federal Immigration and Refugee Board.
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`Governments cannot be held accountable when freedom of information laws are flouted.'
Anne Kothawala, CNA president
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"Several senior people have said to me quite bluntly, `We don't understand why you exist. You're just a hindrance ... What right does the public have to know? We run things our way.'"
Among the methods of undermining information laws is failing to create records in the first place, says Poggione.
If reasons for government decisions aren't documented, there's nothing to release to the public, he says.
"At first, you'd have minutes or tapes of meetings being kept of executive meetings. Once they were asked for (by the public) they died down until they totally disappeared and nobody kept minutes at all. So the corporate history and memory disappears with it."
The audit findings turned up some troubling inconsistencies across the country. While some public officials provided verbal answers to researchers' questions on the spot, the information wasn't always correct. When a reporter in St. John's inquired about bonuses paid to hospital executives in the city, she was told no such payments had been made.
But a formal follow-up request under the province's information legislation turned up a different answer.
One hospital CEO was paid a so-called "cash performance bonus in the full amount of 5 per cent of his base salary" in April, the documents showed.
New Brunswick was a conspicuous trouble spot in the audit, in part because provincial information legislation doesn't cover municipalities.
In Fredericton, police officials denied a request for crime statistics on the grounds that the provincial Department of Justice "does not keep or file that information." A request for the same information in Moncton was also denied.
Regional health authorities in Fredericton and Moncton refused to name hospital executives who received bonuses.
In Saskatchewan, requesters in Regina and Saskatoon received hospital administration bonus payments information after filing formal requests. In Calgary, a requester got dollar figures on the bonuses, but with the names of recipients removed.
Federally, five of the six written requests for information on pandemic preparations remain outstanding more than five months after being filed with the government.
Health Canada responded to just one request — reporting that the records did not exist — and asked for a 60-day extension on the other requests, beyond the legislated 30-day limit. Those extensions expired without response on July 4.
Federal information commissioner John Reid, who is retiring this month after eight years in the position, says bureaucratic secrecy has remained firmly entrenched during his tenure.
"I would say the culture of secrecy has not significantly altered with the bureaucracy. Politicians that become ministers become easily seduced by the attractions of secrecy ... To maintain those legal rights of access to government information, citizens have to take an active role in preserving what is there and pressing for improvements."
But many Canadians who have independently pressed for government openness continue to complain the system is slow, costly and labyrinthine.
Bruce McIntosh, father of a 6-year-old son with autism, wanted some information about provincial educational funding for children with the disease in Ontario.
So he filed a formal request in January asking for statistics on the number of children receiving support through programs, the number on waiting lists and details of any program surpluses or deficits.
Getting the answers ended up taking months of letters, unanswered phone calls and arguments with government officials and a fee of $120, says McIntosh.
Anne Machowski, spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services, said the ministry takes freedom of information requests seriously and that the ministry's compliance rate for providing response within the legislated 30-day limit was 85 per cent last year. |
