Just as ITQ predicted, it turns out that the most effective way to convince the government to comply with current access laws is to publicly announce your plans to launch a daring daylight document raid on Langevin Block.
From today’s Toronto Star:
Privy Council officials have ended months of stonewalling and handed over documents requested by the federal information watchdog.
Yesterday’s disclosure of files came only after Information Commissioner Robert Marleau threatened to have his staff enter the Privy Council offices and seize the paperwork themselves.
Privy Council staff delivered some documents yesterday, the deadline set by Marleau, and promised to deliver the rest soon.
“(Privy Council Office) has already sent several packages of the requested files,” Privy Council spokesperson Jeffrey Chapman said in an email yesterday. “We have also sent a proposed action plan to the Office of the Information Commissioner outlining when we will be able to send the working and final record sets to their office.”
There, now. That wasn’t so hard, was it, PCO? To celebrate this — dare we call it a new spirit of cooperation? — ITQ won’t grumble too much over the lost liveblogging opportunity. Well, not loudly, anyway.
