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Victoria Is Secret, More than Ever
How BC Liberals are blocking info. First in a series.
Harder to pry open public files.
"We will bring in the most open and accountable government in Canada. I know some people say we'll soon forget about that, but I promise that we won't!" -- Newly elected B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell, victory night speech, 2001.
How much more battering can the Freedom of Information system take? As a freelance news reporter, after making hundreds of FOI requests over the past 12 years, I can see government secrecy is sharply on the rise. Information is a source of power, prestige and profit -- and whoever wished to give those away?
Not the BC Liberal government. Latest evidence: The government introduced Bill 25 in late April claiming that it will "strengthen" the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIPP) Act. But as the diverse groups that make up the Campaign for Open Government have noted, Bill 25 actually impedes them by increasing the ability of officials to stall requesters when a request is transferred from one public body to another.
In 2004 a special legislative committee, with 13 BC Liberals and one New Democrat, held hearings on the FOIPP Act and issued an exemplary report. Yet the BC Liberals have been very selective in choosing which of the report's recommendations to implement: of its 28 points, not one of the 10 picked for action improves the actual FOI request process.
Many nails shut the lid
Ideally, the government to would implement all of the committee's recommendations -- such as to allow persons to ask for their own personal records without an FOI request, and to amend section 13 to require the government to proactively publish 14 types of information.
Instead, since their election in 2001, the Liberals have:
- Passed 16 amendments that have made the FOI process more difficult and time consuming. Allowable response times now stretch to many months.
- Slashed the portion of the Information and Privacy Commissioner's budget available for enforcement of the FOIPP Act by 35 per cent in the years 2002-2005. Some funding has been restored recently, but funding for FOI is still not back to 2002 levels. (The Alberta FOIPP Commissioner receives about twice the budget for half the B.C. workload.)
- Failed to restore huge FOI staff cuts made by the anti-FOI administration of NDP premier Glen Clark. Currently each FOI officer is handling an estimated 25-30 files when 10-12 would be optimum. Over 40 per cent of requests are not answered within required timelines, and the delay skyrockets when a request is deemed to be politically sensitive.
When Clark slashed FOI staff, Gordon Campbell stated, "Information rights are meaningless if disclosure timetables cannot be met because there aren't enough staff to do the job," and pledged the Liberals would "...ensure that resources are available so that all provincial government bodies are able to meet or beat statutory disclosure timetables." - Extended cabinet secrecy to several Liberal caucus committees -- a step without precedent in B.C. history -- most recently to its new Climate Action Committee. The discussions of that body will bring major changes to the lives of every person in B.C. "It's the first time I can remember that we weren't consulted on an amendment of the FOI Act," said the commissioner. (The farcical "open cabinet meetings are another matter entirely.)
- Removed B.C. Ferries from the scope of the act and refused to include VANOC, the Olympic organizing committee. (The 2010 Olympics might well become the biggest transparency battle of the next few years.)
- Last year the government tried to pass a bill called the Public Inquiries Act that would have allowed it to keep secret the final reports of its public inquiries. Pressure from the Opposition party and the Campaign for Open Government forced the government to back down, but it re-introduced the bill in a modified form this year.
- The Liberals introduced a B.C. Community Charter -- the law governing local government -- that would have allowed municipal councils to place many more subjects into closed meetings. Unfortunately there are no rules at all setting out what B.C. school boards, colleges, universities and some other public bodies can place in-camera.
A better model might be the American "sunshine laws" whereby most states prescribe the items that all public bodies must discuss in open sessions. For example, a few years ago, parents complained bitterly of the secrecy of a Vancouver School Board budget planning meeting, which never could have occurred in the U.S. But resistance to this move would be intense; one B.C. school board wrote to the provincial government in the late 1990s that it would fight against the passage of a sunshine law, complaining (dubiously) that this would just create more litigation and conflict. - Initiated a highly secretive review of the FOI act by bureaucrats in 2005 instead of adopting the many pro-FOI recommendations of the 2004 special legislative committee.
This review of government openness of was ironic for its secrecy: any group that refused to sign a confidentiality undertaking could not take part. Half of the submissions by public bodies are still being concealed from public view. Thanks to the growing trend towards oral government, no written report was delivered to government by the consultant who reported on the process. - Failed to respond to urgent calls from the Special Committee, the Information Commissioner David Loukidelis and others to clarify the highly-abused section of the FOIPP act relating to policy advice, section 13, so that only true advice and recommendations can be withheld, not background documents. (More about Section 13 in the third and last article in this series.)
- Attempted to pass a bill in 2006 that would have exempted designated contracts and projects with private sector partners from FOI requirements. Concerted opposition from Campaign for Open Government and the NDP scuttled the bill.
- Routinely have engaged in political interference with FOI requests, e.g., with "sensitivity" filters.
- Routinely have made excessive fee estimates for access to records in order to dissuade requesters.
An example of this was brought to light in late April when the Information Commissioner's office ruled that a fee of $173,000 levied against Sierra Legal for data on polluters was unreasonable, that the Environment Ministry did not even examine the requested records in making its estimate, and that it improperly failed to adequately consider waiving the fee in the public interest. (These records were freely posted on government websites in the NDP days.)
Last week, the minister for FOI, Olga Illich, bluntly admitted to her hometown paper, the Richmond News, "These (fees) are also intended to address nuisance requests. If you pay a fee, sometimes you'll be a little more thoughtful about asking for information."
Civil servant blows whistle
But not only politicians are trying to curtail the act's powers. In its own submission to the 2004 review, the provincial bureaucracy had claimed that it was only trying to "fine-tune" the act's language, so that its "original intent" would be better expressed. In response, the information commissioner's aide Mary Carlson, in a too little-known letter of April 2004, noted her "very grave concerns" in the bitterest retort that I've ever seen from that office:
"It is objectionable for appointed public servants who are subject to FOIPPA to, a decade after FOIPPA's enactment, purport to be identifying and expressing the 'original intent' of FOIPPA, an Act of the Legislature. Talk of fine-tuning the law or returning to its original intent disguises the real effect of the [bureaucracy's] recommendations discussed below -- to reduce the public's right of access and impair openness and accountability."
The bureaucracy had also complained that the commissioner's rulings to open up public-private business contracts had "undermined fair and open procurement processes that will result in the best deal for the province," to which Carlson replied, "This serious allegation is a calculated appeal to politics, and we note that no particulars or evidence have been provided to support this sweeping claim."
After NDP Premier Mike Harcourt's FOIPP act came into force in 1993, it worked fairly well for the first two years. Then, perhaps inevitably, the honeymoon soured when FOI requests began revealing scandals. Harcourt's genuine support for the FOI concept was sharply reversed when Clark took over in 1996. In fact, Clark, made a joke (or was it?) at an event with media present, that "If I had my way in cabinet, we wouldn't have an FOI Act."
On that point the first Commissioner David Flaherty -- a privacy expert whose rulings were mostly harmful to FOI -- upon retiring in 1999, disturbingly wrote that he had considered the possibility of the Clark government "abolishing" the FOI act as being "by no means an idle threat."
The supreme irony is that while in Opposition, the Liberals were the single biggest user of the FOI act, and in 1998 Gordon Campbell wrote, "When government does its business behind closed doors, people will invariably believe that government has something to hide." This is just as true today as it was when the NDP was in power.
FOI users who have faced difficulties are welcome to submit their stories to the Campaign for Open Government, or to relate them in the comments section after this article.
Tomorrow: What big B.C. stories have we missed due to government secrecy?
Related Tyee stories:
- Government Secrecy Bills Pulled
Bills 23 and 30 deferred indefinitely. - Public Spending Behind Closed Doors
Private contracts involving public money are insulating government business from needed public scrutiny. - How BC's Government Tracks, Stalls Muckrakers
A deeper look at how Liberals track FOI-filing reporters reveals the methods, the spins, and how the reporter herself ended up on the list
![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
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- The Gem of Canadian Science that Harper Killed
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- Why Blackberry's Embrace of HTML5 Is Good Karma
19
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freebc
5 years ago
See? There isn't a
See? There isn't a trustworthy politician anywhere in BC.
All of the parties have an agenda. And the goal of all the parties is to gain political dominance so that they can have a free hand at ramming their brand of agenda down the throats of a confused frustrated public.
And none of the present parties, including the greens want you the voter to have ultimate control of them and any agenda they may have.
It is odd that the BC Conservatives have as their stated policy the one that closest resembles democracy.
They have as their stated goal, direct democracy. Something the NDP do not want and Cambell's Liberals won't have.
The Greens aren't interested either, opting instead for the push for pro rep in hopes of getting a seat or two so that they can try to force their generally unwanted agenda down the throats of a generally unreceptive voter.
To this end, the only way to bring some sanity back to BC, (If the ever was any to begin with) is to drop the rocks, and vote for the one party that at least publishes a willingness to reform democratic power back to the voter.
This need only happen once! Just once. After the reforms are in place, toss them if you want because after these things are in, it won't matter who is in because the power to control politicians shifts from the premier to the voter.
Something that we do not have now. Mike Harcourt nearly gave it to us but instead played little games with a referendum he didn't want, but got saddled with anyway. The result is the worthless recall and initiative legislation we have now.
For God's sake don't lose the dreams and visions of a moderate BC. But know too that we will never have this as long as we the voter are stuck with what we have now.
Mike Summers
Vanderhoof BC
Grumpy
5 years ago
BC Thy name is secrecy!
Tried to get an FOI on Dobel's & Bird's LRT planning for RAV on Arbutus, no can get. All one can get is a 'peered reviewed' (what ever that means as no 'peer' I have talked to, has seen it) cleansed Executive review.
It seems Falcon and Campbell are now afraid of their minions attempts to discredit LRT!
Jeffrey J.
5 years ago
Thank you Tyee
The real significance of this story is that we're reading it, and the Tyee is publishing it! Thank you to all. Of course, this story SHOULD be in today's Vancouver Sun on the bottom of page one, if our Fourth Estate were doing its job. But alas, they are not. So it is to the internet that we look, having terminated our cable TV five years ago. And it is on the internet that people can be informed of what is REALLY occurring in our society, and within our political parties. Keep up the great work Stanley and the Tyee.
southdeltawalker
5 years ago
secrecy and scandal......
Secrecy and scandal...this will be the legacy of the Campbell Gov't.
Skywalker
5 years ago
What about the cost.
I would be curious about the total cost of FOI over the past decade or since its beginning. Then one could understand if there was justification for being alarmed at the increase in resources needed. If a person working in FOI complains it could simply be that they were trying to protect their position.
On the other hand FOI will have to cost something as will democracy. I am certainly not surprised that the liberals want to get rid of it. It would even give the media another excuse not to report on the rot in the government.
G West
5 years ago
freebc: You're right about the Greens Mike
Some four weeks ago I sent a personal query to the Green Party Ottawa HQ asking about policy positions on two or three items that aren't covered at the website.
Nothing, not a word, nada.
About the same time I sent a long query about Afghanistan policy to Stephane Dion.
Last week I got a personal, signed reply.
Layton responded to the the same points much more quickly, but by email.
Harper: I didn't bother.
Draw your own conclusions - I'm afraid to write to anyone in the Provincial Government and identify myself - it's just too risky for someone who has been as critical as I've been of their 'policies' and who still has something to lose.
The whole key to the Liberal ethos is to never answer a question at the same time giving the appearance of being open. It is what all those OIC-appointment media hacks are being paid to plan, design and engage with on the Boss's behalf.
Spend an hour watching the ministry budget estimates debate and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about.
freebc
5 years ago
Quote:Spend an hour watching
Wouldn't it be easier on yourself to have the wife stab your brain with a knitting needle?
I have concluded, that politics in Canada is nothing more than some kind of game that is played by the leaders of all the parties. None of which is interested in you having any abilitiy to screw up their little plans.
Naturally, those plans include lucretive deals for them. The lowly backbenchers never get a shot at meaningful change, and they sure don't get a voice.
And there are secrets. Lots of them. And deals between party leaders that don't even include a caucus from either side.
God forbid some radical like me ever got in there. I would have a field day because I DON'T KISS NO BUTT!!!
I hate what I'm seeing and can't understand how intelligent individuals cannot grasp the slight of hand tricks that stop us from knowing what is happening.
The politicians are unreigned self serving pickpockets looking for a way to fleece you and I without losing power to someone else who will do the exact same thing.
My wife knows my political ambitions and glares at me every time some politician does something retarded.
ALL POLITICIANS NEED TO BE CONTROLLED BY THE VOTERS!
There are no exceptions. In my junior high days, my socials teacher taught us a simple truth.
"Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
I am not so naive to think I too may be exempt. Some of the nicest people are destroyed in the legislature or the commons.
I wonder if there isn't some noxious gas that is in the legislature buildings that affects the human brain when exposed to it for too long?
Mike Summers
Vanderhoof BC
Dolly Varden
5 years ago
Double standard
The other day I heard our Premier tell a reporter that he was honour-bound to implement the full recommendations of a commission that found in favour of hefty pay hikes for MLAs and, er , himself.
Pity that does not choose to honour any of the core recommendations of the 2004 all-party committee that looked into his government's growing attachment to secrecy.
G West
5 years ago
Mike/ Dolly
That's why I only suggested an hour. Abbott is spinning like a dervish at this very moment.
Dolly,
The Premier has an unusual idea of what constitues 'honour'.
kootcoot
5 years ago
Irony and Hypocrisy - Liberal Qualities
Speaking of the irony of being honour bound to follow certain recommendtions and not others, our current Solicitor General, the one who may not as yet have interfered in the BC Rail trial, John Les had some good news for the folks of Port Coquitlam who had their contracts voided for pre-purchased houses, so the developer can sell at today's increased price.
He said that a contract must be honoured, he forgot to say, unless it is a labour contract with the government. Then as we know, with the Lieberals, contracts only need to be honoured if the government so chooses. I imagine the government will support "contracts" when it comes to honouring TILMA, just not contracts with the actual people of BC, doing the stuff that needs to be done.
The brain
5 years ago
History repeats itself
The bill introduced in 2006 along with Bill 25 introduced this year is reminiscent of the last year of rule by the Conservative Devine government's abuse of power in Saskatchewan. They did what they could to butcher the FOI act in Sask. as well.
When the Conservatives ran the usual 4 year term to 5 years and were voted out with exactly zero MLA's re-elected, 15 MLA's were indited with fraud and public theft of funds. One MLA committed suicide after being caught red handed for embezzling close to 50 million in public funds. 11 other MLA's were convicted and 7 served time.
I can see history repeating itself in this province in much the same way. How much this Campbell government is hiding in the way of public theft of funds and redirected funds into government spending on contracts that are one tender bids... the public doesn't want to know.
And, thats exactly why the public has to know. Its an embarrassment to voters who voted for this bunch of crooks, but Freebear is right. Power corrupts. Its time for voters to wake up to certain realities. Its our back yard, our public money and our personal public responsibility to clean up the messes others leave behind whether we like it or not and why? Cause no one else will!!!
To turn away and do nothing now as voters and otherwise, is to condone corruption. There is simply no other way of looking at it. This is reality, folks. The Basi Virk trial is just the beginning.
Lorne Mccuaig
Revelstoke, BC
doggone
5 years ago
funny you should say that
I too am somewhat sympathetic with the boneheads who "run" this province:
They are playing with the "big Boys" and really don't have much room to manouver.
Say what you will to get elected and then find out what really matters - could you or I (assuming we were suddenly elected to provincial rep. status) do any thing different?
In the short term "business as usual" continues to dominate.
In the long term the current power will be as well respected as "what's her name?" who replaced Bill Van der Zalm.
Skookum1
5 years ago
Honour-bound and tongue-tied
Er ya, funny thing about that honour word - how much those who have little use it the loudest don't have. Needless to say if this were a majority NDP regime approving the recommendations of a report from commissioners it had appointed, the right-wing parties would be howling. Good thing for Gordie I guess there's no provincial Tory party. Oh wait, they are the provincial tory party (small-t), aren't they?
Honour? An honourable first minister would hvae resigned not only for drunk-driving, but for embarrassing the country while visiting another. An honourable first minister would have cashed in his chips when the legislature was raided, or at least suspended all those connected with the case. But that would include himself, no?
Honour? In short supply in these parts, I'm afraid; except when backing up the government's own decisions/appointees/commissions.
off-the-radar
5 years ago
great topic, good article
the Liberal practice of talking "open and accountable government" but practicing secrecy and skullduggery needs to exposed.
thanks for a very timely article (and thank goodness for the Tyee)
reality_check
5 years ago
I wonder how much drug money is involved ....
in these matters and how the government is running.
I think we would be very surprised how much drug dealing influences or runs governments nowadays. MOst people in Canada are for the legalizations of pot and --in a measured ways-- other drugs, but are the politicians doing anything about it? Mmmm! I wonder why? I wonder why? I wonder how many having clean hands.
And, BTW, the idiots who voted for the O. games, are either very stupid or have something to gain from it.
BUt, hey, as long as everyone work to buy that 2nd SUV and pay that huge mortgage, they know that no one has the time or the money to touch these clowns.
IAMC
5 years ago
pot head
[Edited due to offensive content -Tyee editor]
I guess I have something to gain from the Olympic Games in Vancouver in 2010.
Entertainment and pride.
[And here -Tyee editor]
doggone
5 years ago
this is so good!
IAMC whacking offf at "pothead"
While Rome Burns.
The deal is:
"What's his Name?"'s "liberals" have shut down information access.
There is no turning back: internet promised to be open and accessible.
NOT!
ChrisB
5 years ago
What Are My Chances?
This is a subject I know nothing about. Have never made a FOI request. I'm looking for some suggestions.
I have a highly consequential lawsuit underway against the government and they have ignored my "demand for discovery of documents". If I prevail in the hearing on June 1 in which they will seek a dismisal by summary judgement (claiming my case is "frivolous", "vexatious", etc.), then I hope to get a court order that they must coooperate with the discovery process.
Is there any point in trying the FOI route at this point? What I am seeking includes access to the working documents used during the 1992 - 1996 general statute revision process. The primary defendants in the lawsuit are the A.G. and the Minister of Labour. Labour includes Citizen's Services, which I understand oversees the FOI process.
The brain
5 years ago
A hoot expert!
Tisk, tisk. IAMC... the poor guy hasn't yet figured out that belittling everyone else to build himself up is more dullard than foolish. He's not the typical Basi or Virk troll who's on the dole to slam ideological opponents. He does it all on his own, unwary as to just how visible self projections like his are to see with anyone who has common sense. (self worship comes to mind)
How obvious is IAMC? The poor waife actually believes that this Liberal government is responsible for bringing and hosting the Olympics, as if Campbell and Co. did it all on their own and no one else could have done it but them, that location and nation had absolutely nothing to do with it. Like an owl coming out of a clock upon the hour, he's a real hoot!
Ah, but what we believe... Some folks believe money will solve all of their problems. Others believe that all foods from the grocery store are safe to eat. Still others believe that there will never be another recession, that politicans like George Bush can be trusted, that all corporations mean us no harm and all CEO's are gentle, giving and nice, that U.S. foreign policy just wants whats best for the rest of the world, is a great role model when it comes to the environment, that things like the war on Iraq are for moral reasons only, that the world is flat, and on and on. Ah, IMAC, if only it were so true.
You don't mind, IAMC, if I take a rain check on your reality Cheque... you might make an interesting case study to observe, assuming you will still be commenting by 2010. Some Liberal MLA's should be up on charges by that time... it will be interesting to see if you will believe in the same delusions as you do now, reacting with the same predictable patterns by then, or suddenly wake up! I'm sorry IAMC, but I truly believe that I can't say that I'm optimistic you will ever really know what is real from fake.
Oh, yah. And while its on my mind, I'm likely to be speaking on behalf of most of the rest who've commented when I say, IMAC, "you can kiss my ass."
And I REALly mean it.
Lorne McCuaig
Revelstoke, BC