Topic
How officials buried info we deserve to know. Second in a series.
Deleting, deflecting, other tactics.
By delaying the release of records through FOI, government officials calculate that editors will spurn them as being "old news" and therefore not worth publishing. To which I would reply with the words of the great 1940s American editor Heywood Broun: "For the truth there is no deadline."
Here are some examples from my recent work. Call them Ghosts of Stories that Might Have Been. They were essentially "spiked" by what our premier still touts as "the most open and accountable government in Canada."
Outsourcing to U.S. firm. When the BC Liberal government contracted out the management of our health information to the U.S. company Maximus -- raising fears the records could be accessed by the FBI trolling for data -- the contract was kept secret, on a "harm to business" rationale (ignoring the 2000 Coke-UBC FOI precedent).
This prompted a years-long FOI battle at the commissioner's office by various applicants that is still ongoing. Similar struggles continue to see the government contracts with EDS and IBM. (Ideally, all such contracts should be posted on ministry websites.) Then, I made an FOI to see the amounts that Maximus was fined for poor performance, and those numbers were withheld also, under section 17, "financial harm to government"; and that too is under appeal.
ICBC bonuses. In April the Insurance Corporation of B.C. told the media that it would no longer release the figures of bonuses it paid to its senior officials. The reason given me by the ICBC public relations branch? "We just didn't like the way the media reported on the bonuses last year." I countered that such an excuse was not an exemption listed in the FOIPP statute, to no avail.
So I filed an FOI request to ICBC, who rejected it, with the novel argument of section 22, i.e., the bonuses are their private "work history." (After an extensive search, I was unable to find any other B.C. public body that refuses to release such bonus figures, which are paid from the public purse.)
So I appealed to the information commissioner, whose office is so backed up that -- as every public body well knows -- it might take two years for a ruling to emerge, hence making the bonuses "old news."
Children and prostitution. The act allows FOI fees to be waived if they are in the public interest, yet such waiver requests, from the media or non-profit groups, are too often spurned. Upon their appeals, the commissioner has granted fee waivers to environmental groups.
After it was revealed at a Vancouver Police Board meeting that Vancouver aboriginal schoolchildren were being recruited into prostitution, I made an FOI request to a ministry for related records. The ministry charged an unaffordably high search fee, I appealed the fee, and the ministry coolly rejected the appeal with no explanation other than that request was generally not in "the public interest." This is the single most troubling FOI response I have seen.
UBC's 'private' business. Ever since the FOIPP Act became law in 1993, the University of British Columbia has housed by far the most obstructionist FOI office in the province. (The next in line is the B.C. Lottery Corporation.) The irony here, often noted, is that of an academic institution whose self-described mandate is to disseminate knowledge, being as obsessively secretive as any royal fiefdom.
For a year UBC refused my repeated requests for an updated list of its dozens of corporate entities that it claims are wholly exempt from the FOI law, despite having provided such a list in 1998. When I made an FOI request for records from seven of these entities, it was rejected (despite the fact the Vancouver School Board has been ordered by the senior government to add all of its wholly owned companies to FOI coverage), a refusal now under appeal. The most important is UBC Properties Trust, which manages 1,000 acres of public land and $600 million dollars of construction on campus in secret, a company wholly owned by UBC to generate profit for it and which is staffed by UBC officials sitting on its board. Such "private" entities are also a problem at SFU and UVic.
Next, when I asked UBC through FOI for an internal report into a managerial wrongdoing, UBC refused (on "privacy" grounds) and I appealed. UBC then hired a lawyer to try to shut down the commissioner's inquiry on the grounds that the FOI legal principle at stake had been decided once-and-for all years ago ("issue estoppel") -- the first time I have ever heard of such an FOI strategy tried. After months of legal arguments, the commissioner rejected UBC's pleas, and the inquiry continued.
Then, UBC charged me $577 to locate and copy the minutes of a half-dozen Board of Governors closed meetings. By contrast, SFU and Langara College put summaries of their in-camera board meetings up on their websites. And so it goes.
Premier's phone records. FOI response delays seem to be growing, with three months the new average. In Victoria, the slowest responder is the premier's office. (In 2004 my FOI request for Premier Campbell's phone records was rejected on privacy grounds -- an argument the commissioner ruled in favour of -- despite NDP Premier Mike Harcourt's having released his phone records a decade earlier, to his great loss.)
Delays sometimes come from overworked FOI staff, who generally do their best, but more often from elsewhere, such as the "program area" in which the records must be found, which can be located in another office or another city. The final and worst bottleneck is usually the deputy minister (acting for the "head of the public body"), who must "sign off" on the records before they can be sent out, whenever he/she can find the time to do so. "We're too busy," is the general excuse. (What would the state's response be to a citizen who routinely said "Sorry, I just can't find the time to obey the laws"?)
A delay of more than 61 working days is a "deemed refusal" in law, and one can appeal that through the commissioner's effective "expedited inquiry on delays" policy which began last November, and which sometimes works well. (In this process, for one of my requests, the commissioner granted a ministry an extended deadline, then the ministry broke that deadline also -- for which the commissioner could have imposed a $5,000 fine but didn't. So I was compelled to take the rare step of phoning the deputy minister directly to ask for sign off. That worked.)
The legal odds are nearly always stacked against the applicant. For example, the applicant has just 30 working days to appeal an FOI refusal, and if that deadline is missed there is no second chance. By contrast government routinely breaks its own deadlines with impunity.
Minister's briefing book. As other FOI applicants can also attest, governments sometimes claim that specific records do not exist, when in fact they really do. (It is usually impossible to learn whether the misrepresentation was accidental or not).
For example, through FOI I obtained a copy of the table of contents page for a minister's briefing book. Later I made a new request for three chapters from the book, citing them from the contents page. Startlingly, the ministry replied that no such book existed at all. Upon appeal, the ministry official mused that there may have been such a book once, but it had since been destroyed. Six months later, they somehow found the book, and sent over the chapters.
Vancouver campaign money. Vancouver is the only municipality that bars citizens from photocopying lists of the donors to civic election campaigns, so I was compelled to sit in the city clerk's office for hours to hand-write them all. (I appealed, but the commissioner ruled that these Vancouver Charter rules override rights in the FOIPP Act.)
This year, the city's FOI branch became the only public body in B.C. to start charging fees for "reviewing" FOI records, despite the government's own policy manual that clearly states public bodies "cannot charge fees for reviewing records." The Vancouver FOI director claims the book's interpretation of the FOIPP Act is wrong, and so the city has no legal or moral duty to follow it. The dispute is under appeal with the commissioner.
Closed Health Authority meetings. In 2003, the B.C. Supreme Court ordered B.C.'s secretive health authorities to open their meeting to the public. Justice M.D. Macaulay had a sharp rebuke for health authorities and their claim that they were right to exclude the public. These justifications show "a cynical favouring of the interest of the bureaucracy over that of the public," wrote Macaulay, "as well as a stunning disregard for the legislative intent" of the Health Authorities Act. The legal challenge had been launched by the Hospital Employees' Union (HEU).
Health workers silenced. On Oct. 10, 2006, the Vancouver Sun reported that a directive from Howard Waldner, CEO and president of the Vancouver Island Health Authority, warned the 16,000 employees, everyone from doctors to nurses to support staff, that they are not allowed to talk to the media, MLAs or MPs without getting permission from the top of their organization.
Government keeps refining its game
For years, in response to many of my (and others') FOI requests, large sections have been sent here blanked out, with a little "o/s" handwritten upon the blanks. This means "out of scope." In other words, the government asserts the material does not fit your wording in your request -- which it generally interprets in the most narrow way possible, and sometimes wrongly -- and then it assumes (only for your benefit, of course) that the material wouldn't interest you.
It cannot be calculated how much vital public information has been concealed over the years in this way. We do not know just who in government (e.g. the FOI director, deputy minister) is making these "o/s" decisions. This practice is of highly dubious legality, for withholding records as "out of scope" is clearly not an exemption in the FOIPP act. Of course, being unable to see the "o/s" parts, the applicant has no way of knowing if the deleted portions were truly "out of scope" or not, unless he/she appeals to the commissioner, which few do.
Lately, as well, some ministries have been mailing me peculiar warnings of "Crown Copyright" accompanying the records they send in reply to my FOI requests. They warn me that the records are state property and I cannot legally reproduce them (such as in news stories?) without their express permission, although the penalties are not specified.
The concept was scathingly derided by former federal information commissioner John Grace, who called Crown copyright "something ironic, if not repugnant, and perhaps even unconstitutional." He added "the whole quaint notion has been all but dormant, ignored under the reasonable assumption that what the government produces for the public with public funds is in the public domain.... Thus does common sense make mockery of an unenforceable concept. In the context of Crown copyright, who is the 'Crown' if not the people?"
Oral government
Meanwhile, the insidious shift towards "oral government" is growing. E-mails must be preserved and accessible under FOI laws. A debate is looming over Blackberry records. Yet the premier's multi-tasking assistant Ken Dobell startled an FOI conference in 2003 by announcing frankly that "I delete my email all the time as fast as I can." Loukidelis later reprimanded Dobell for publicly admitting he avoids taking notes so they aren't uncovered by reporters under FOI.
We are left to wonder how effectively government can operate when depending only on the tenuous string of memory.
At the same event, Dobell asserted that "FOI still makes for good government," and that for voicing this concept, "I've been lectured to by my colleagues on the need for more cabinet confidentiality -- I was called ignorant and naïve."
As well, former Liberal aide Dave Basi, now on trial for various offenses, told the court he assured others not to worry about their e-mails to him emerging under FOI, because he just prints out his emails and then deletes them. Basi quipped that "FOI is for purists."
Tomorrow: Why 13 is the unluckiest number for citizens seeking FOI materials.
Related Tyee stories:
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DJT
6 years ago
I don't see why the Liberals
I don't see why the Liberals would worry about withholding information until it becomes "old news". The fact is, most of the "new" news that matters isn't published by CanWest anyway, at least in any meaningful or critical way, and not without their own share of omissions.
When it comes down to it, I do not believe that anything should be kept from the public. We are, after all, paying the bills, are we not? And it's not like the Liberals have anything to hide..... right?
BC Mary
6 years ago
The template is visible.
Call me naive, if you must. But first, think about the growth and escalation of Organized Crime. Remember, for one thing, the $6 Billion cash drifting secretly through British Columbia annually. It helps a bit to think about EDITED FOR POSSIBLE LIBEL -- TYEE EDITOR Kenneth Lay, too.
Then go back over some of the outrageous events and agreements in our own world -- up to and including TILMA -- that have people scratching their heads in disbelief.
There's no reasonable explanation for the new ethics -- or for the kind of secrecy Stanley Tromp has met -- unless it is developed outside ethics, outside the law, in the twilight zone where criminals and the upwardly mobile blend.
So is it entirely naive to wonder if the methods of organized crime -- if not the criminals themselves -- have entered into our lives?
What else can explain the wrong-headed, anti-democratic events which are happening all around us? And my god, can't you just hear one of the well-known, equally corrupted media outlets saying "Well, what's wrong with that? It brings in more profits. It's good for British Columbia."
Many thanks to Stanley Tromp for his principles, his persistence, and for giving us this story.
Grumpy
6 years ago
A new dark age....
We are living in a new dark age, where a corrupt political system has spawned almost total control over our lives. The government's new god is money and the public take second place.
Drug money is laundered openly in casinos.
Billions of taxpayers money is distributed to friends of the government through hugely expensive public works, such as RAV and Gateway, instead of building just as effective, cheaper alternatives.
A massive tax shift from the wealthy to the poor.
The collapse of contract law, where no ones word is good and the law supports who has appointed the judges.
Evil days and in the end, revolution, either quiet or loud. My money is now on a very short nasty turn of events.
Chris H
6 years ago
Investigative Journalism
While FOI requests can be a usefull tool, it is quite evident that they are becoming much more unreliable. Perhaps, reporters need to concentrate on other ways at getting information.
kootcoot
6 years ago
Grumpy's Typo - I assume
In his comment just above Grumpy lists as one of the signs of the "New Dark Age" the following:
Either Grumpy mis-stated himself there and kinda got it backwards, by accident, or I would like to know what planet he has been inhabiting of late. Or maybe I'm mis-reading, if he means a shift of tax-burden, then I agree - but the transfer of wealth itself is definitely going the other direction, in the US and here in Canada, especially in BC.
dorothy
6 years ago
an idea whose time has come?
Hmmm - this calls for getting strategic. Is it an idea to proceed in the journalistic enterprise, presenting educated guesses at what it might be all these keepers of secrets would have kept so secret? That would make them come out of the woodwork and equally produce proof that what you said they were hiding was not what hey're hiding, and then we would find out what they're hiding, wouldn't we?
Jeffrey J.
6 years ago
Great article
It is articles like these, read by BC's public, that will keep our society democratic. So it is very, very important that we keep doing this. This, believe it or not, is part of the cure. We each have an ethical obligation to remain involved and concerned. Unfortunately, it appears that we all collectively stopped holding our media and politicians accountable during the 80's and 90's while the neoconservative extremists increased their influence. Thus, it will only be the citizens of BC who can take back that influence. Thank you Tyee for being an important part of this effort!
James Burns
6 years ago
There's photocopy and then there's photo copy
Stanley, if they won't let you use a photocopier, then bring a digital camera, or get a cell phone with a good quality camera (you can get quite good ones now and many cell phones also have removable flash memory chips that have enough capacity for thousands of photos). Practice taking pics of printed pages. In fact, it may be a good idea to practice doing it surreptitiously. Hell you can even use the phone to email the photos to yourself before leaving whatever government office you're at. Then later you can print the photos out, or get software that can read the text in the photos and save yourself more time.
off-the-radar
6 years ago
good article
nice to see the government's strategy laid out---a war of attrition so citizens give up in exasperation.
And the Commissioner's office hamstrung by lack of resources and perhaps lack of will.
It seems to me that the independent officers of the legislature are remarkably compliant with government's wishes.
Look at the very mild response from the BC ombudsman on lottery cheating in BC versus the remarkable investigation that the Ontario ombudsman conducted.
Grumpy
6 years ago
What I meant was...
What I meant was that the burden of taxation is switching from the wealthy to the poor. The poor are paying more, where the wealthy are not paying as much.
Since Campbell came into power I have seen a constant erosion of my earnings, not matched by an increase in economic action.
Other than the energy industry, all I see is a lot of wealthy people, sucking off the taxpayer's tit.
In Delta, one cannot even put a shovel into the ground without two flaggers.
To do a simple renovation, one must hire an architect, engineers, etc, etc., all taking their cut.
it goes on and on!
RAV is the perfect example; instead of building a LRT line for about $800 million, we are building a metro/subway for about $2.5 billion. We are spending over three times as much for a smaller, less useful transit line and where does the extra money go? Friends of the government, the guys who mostly support the Liberal party. This is the story of the Liberal government, spend the taxpayer's money on mega projects, run up the provincial debt, and hope things turnout alright at the end!
The madness goes on and on and until the disenfranchised rise up in indignation, it will continue ad nauseum!
Kam Lee
6 years ago
our public worth
DELETED FOR POSSIBLE LIBEL -- TYEE EDITOR
freebc
6 years ago
Can someone tell me just why
Can someone tell me just why everyone is so seemingly afraid of setting aside agendas just long enough to elect enough MLA's to bring in effective recall and binding initiatives that allow the voters to reach into any piece of legislation?
I have sought for years to bring direct democracy to empower the voters of BC.
But it just seems to me that I cannot get people to see the big solution to a huge problem.
We all KNOW that our political system is corrupt and that the politicians are absolutely out of control.
In my mind, the only way to fix this, is to slap a leash on the politicians and install a remedy for their handiwork if something goes wrong.
Why is this so hard to get support on?
vhoofpreacher@hotmail.com
Mike Summers
Vanderhoof BC
BC Dude
6 years ago
I believe that CAP stands
I believe that CAP stands and believes in all that is good “For the People By the People”!
That everyone is created equal!
I'd love to be able to bring this party’s forum forward to show US the People!
I watched a bit on Shaw 104 to see if the opposition would bring up in OUR BC Provincial Legislature anything about the BCR scandal in BC's history! NO, all I see and hear are/is disHon: A--A-B--B--B-OT's spinner dead-face and totally boring stonewalling voice!
Why hasn't the media brought this very serious and Draconian and treasonous TILMA up in front page print and TV? Treasonous, as we are at war for their/our Freedom of Speech and Democracy?
The media was the first thing that was taken over by these fascist dolts Gordo's Boys as WE are dumbed down and left out of the "looooop" for the take down by “The Enemy Within”!
Where is the media coverage or updates of OUR Vancouver Supreme Courts on the BC Rail Scandal/ Legislature 2003 Raids not on CanWest media?
Does anyone know (Probably not) that this very case is now "Mon-Fri" usually 10am before OUR Supreme Courts of BC, Vancouver?
http://bctrialofbasi-virk.blogspot.com/ She (BC Mary) has archived from Dec 2003 till today every day!
Everyone who can make it to this Supreme Court BCR/Legislature Raid scandal = OUR Democracy
BC Dude
6 years ago
This is just one, but a huge
EDITED FOR LEGAL CONCERNS (A TRIAL UNDERWAY) -- TYEE EDITOR When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism, are incapable of being conquered. A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies: - Martin Luther King, Jr -from "A Time to Break Silence", King's address given on this day, April 4th in 1967 at the Riverside Church in New York City.
http://canadianactionparty.ca/leader_m.htmlJust makes a lot of sense!
BC Dude
6 years ago
http://canadianactionparty.ca
http://canadianactionparty.ca/leader_m.html
BC Dude
6 years ago
Might be of
Might be of interest!
08-May-2007
MAC is seeking to hire 9 creative, energetic young professionals to join our 2007-2008 Young Professionals International Mine Action Program!!
APPLY NOW!
freebc
6 years ago
CAP
I went to the CAP site and their section on political reforms in Canada.
What they are proposing isn't any different than what we have right now is it? I couldn't see any difference anyway.
What did they propose that is different?
They are still catering to central Canada.
They are not giving you a real voice.
And they are proposing prorep which still remains the single most undemocratic of methods when you the voter does not have absolute and final control over any and all legislation.
There must be a constitution first. That constitution must outline specific rights and privilages available to all CANADIANS. These rights are not automatic for those who merely visit.
But beyond those things specifically outlined in the constitution, all things are up for grabs.
But the CAP doesn't offer that. In fact, I don't even see them watering down what we have today,
Clearly, there will be no national change without a crisis. Otherwise there is no incentive on the part of central Canada with regard to their dumping their current constitutional lock on the country.
That means that the west or BC must push this all by ourselves if we are ever to gain the balance that we all seek.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Mike Summers
Vanderhoof BC
BC Dude
6 years ago
So you mean we don't stand a
So you mean we don't stand a chance in this wholesale giveaway of our Country Canada?
We went through this bs in the 30s and we came out smarter but these moneymongers are greedy, they haven't any morals or rules.
I get $879. on CDP and they wanted a raise worth more than I get to survive/exist on each month, go figure.
I worked 20+ yrs for this bunch of criminals to steal, give it away! bs
So Where and When do we form for a peacefull March?
BC Dude
6 years ago
"Cowardice asks the
"Cowardice asks the question: is it safe? Expediency asks the question: is it politic? Vanity asks the question: is it popular? But conscience asks the question: Is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular- but one must take it simply because it is right." : Martin Luther King Jr. 1929-1968
"Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today" : Mahatma Gandhi
BC Dude
6 years ago
www.matthewgood.org/
http://www.matthewgood.org/
snert
6 years ago
Join The Liberal Party
Then subvert it. That's what the righties did. Play their game.
BC Dude
6 years ago
www.yourmedia.ca/news/2007/07
http://www.yourmedia.ca/news/2007/070125_media_climate.html
http://mitchellanderson.blogspot.com/2007/02/journalistic-malpractice.html
http://consciousearth.blogspot.com/2007/01/media-manipulation-and-global-warming.html
BC Dude
6 years ago
Why is there no news TV
Why is there no news TV (province rag a16 (snip) about the biggest scandal to ever hit British Columbians as OUR taxs go into that great sink-hole or blackhole your pick!
BC Dude
6 years ago
province rag a16 was Wed rag
province rag a16 was Wed rag
BC Dude
6 years ago
Fascism Once more let me
Fascism
Once more let me remind you what fascism is. It need not wear a brown shirt or a green shirt - it may even wear a dress shirt. Fascism begins the moment a ruling class, fearing that people may use their political democracy to gain economic democracy, begins to destroy political democracy in order to retain its power of exploitation and special privilege.
T.C.Douglas
BC www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHESRvUEhcY
Fed www.youtube.com/watch?v=gulOgUBGZeU
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y06NSBBRt
BC Dude
6 years ago
"Of all the enemies to
"Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes. And armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. "In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended. Its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force of the people. "The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and morals, engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare." : James Madison, April 20, 1795
Why are we at war? Not one politition has an answer?
dorothy
6 years ago
It begins before that
BC Dude:
You are looking at this from an angle, which fails to take history and its dynamics into consideration. Way, way back, there was a roughly outlined patchwork quilt of tribal lands everywhere, sometimes with somewhat fuzzy borders, as we can see for instance here, what with overlapping land-claims, which some white folks snigger at, but which are rational in view of different people doing different things on the land at different times. It is only now we have this perverse need to draw lines, preferably using a ruler, because our aim is not maximum liveability, but maximum exclusive profit.
Tribal wars were inevitable, because sometimes a tribe got these imperial or exclusive or rankist ideas and started to aim at power and profit at the expense of others, as opposed to peaceful coexistence, or mild competition. The way they did this started with over-breeding. You can in the classical sense take for granted, that every nation, which increases its numbers at exponential, or near exponential lines, will sooner or later become aggressive and expansionist. What else would be the logical outcome? People dutifully lying down and dying, because they had overshot the mark? Some will, but only under pressure of a terror-balance. Let us not kid ourselves that the concepts and reality of ‘cold war’ are dead and buried. Think twice, before you decide who the aggressors are.
Nobody has the right to ‘play dumb’ in this department anymore. The world has seen – and read – a Hitler, who knew very well how important the business of breeding was, and had no difficulty expressing that insight. People then did not see the effort towards population growth as the prelude to agression it inevitably is. Today, we have hopefully gotten smarter. Pre-emptive action is not the least bit pre-emptive, just getting out of the featherbed earlier in the game, which we did not choose. It is possible the Roman Catholic church, which is, to most people’s perception, ‘western’, does carry a deal of responsibility for over-population many places in the world, but so does Islam and Hinduism and all the other 'isms'. Are there more effective warmongers among the lot? Just like lawyers make the most money, when money change hands in a big way, organized religion thrives on shifts in power and has never been shy of engineering them if need be. The kingmaker and the magician are often the same person. At least we can be grateful that our very own Merlin, Mark Marissen, still must get his prospective king elected, and there is no guarantee the underlings will oblige. That is why this place may indeed be the best one on Earth and why it is worth standing up for the way we do things here. If there is a lie we should never fall for, it is the one that one thing can be as good as another.