Information overlord

By John Geddes - Monday, October 19, 2009 at 10:00 AM - 5 Comments

The federal Access to Information Act dates back to 1983. Proposals to put more teeth into the rules for when the government must release documents started with the very first review of the law in 1986, and have kept coming ever since. Countless committee reports and expert studies have proposed ways to force more openness. When the Conservatives won the 2006 election on a platform promising a sweeping access-to-information overhaul, the time for real change seemed finally to have arrived. After settling into power, though, Stephen Harper’s government decided against implementing most of the promised changes in its early batch of accountability reforms. Since then, the Tories have seemed content to let the issue slide down their priorities list to obscurity.

Enter Suzanne Legault, the blunt-talking new interim information commissioner appointed by Harper in June. Legault might have been expected to take up the two-decade-old cry for fundamental changes to the system her office oversees. Instead, she has a surprising message for those hoping for root-and-branch reform: forget about it. “That won’t happen,” she told Maclean’s. “Nothing is going to change, that’s my experience.” And what about all those sincere, detailed blueprints for strengthening the access act that are always floating around Parliament Hill? “They’ve been saying the same things for 25 years,” she said. “So let’s try to tackle it differently.” Continue…

"We could, in addition to the previous line, perhaps add a line such as…"

By Paul Wells - Monday, July 27, 2009 at 2:07 PM - 20 Comments

Colleague Petrou asked the Department of Foreign Affairs for information. This set squadrons of bureaucrats into many rounds of frantic consultation about how to give him the smallest possible amount of information. Read all about it here. It would be hilarious if it weren’t perfectly appalling.

I’ll note only that this obsession with saying as little as possible and mattering as little as possible did not begin with the Harper government, though it has been refined to self-satirizing perfection over the past three years. In 2002 I attended a summit of La Francophonie in Beirut at which the only usable information Canadian reporters received came, not from Jean Chrétien’s entourage, but from reading the Beirut newspapers and eavesdropping on the French government’s briefings of its own reporters. Every reporter who uses the Access to Information Act has no end of horror stories of duplicitous foot-dragging.

But it has all been getting worse. And Robert Marleau, the departing Information Commissioner, let it go on for years before announcing his snap retirement. Much of the coverage of that decision was given over to wondering why Marleau was leaving so early. I wonder, since he was bound to do so little to fight the attitudes Petrou chronicles, why he bothered hanging around so long.

PCO to Information Commissioner: *blink*

By kadyomalley - Saturday, June 27, 2009 at 9:14 AM - 4 Comments

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.

Have fun storming the castle!

By kadyomalley - Friday, June 26, 2009 at 11:14 AM - 20 Comments

Now this would definitely qualify as going out with a bang. From today’s installment of the Toronto Star’s almost-certainly-eventually-to-be-award-winning “Sham-ocracy” series:

Canada’s outgoing information watchdog is threatening to seize documents after complaints that the bureaucratic wing of the Prime Minister’s Office is stonewalling some access-to-information requests.

The information commissioner served formal notice on the Privy Council Office this week, warning that commission staff would use their legal powers to seize the documents themselves if the paperwork wasn’t provided by today.

“I’m about to walk into PCO next week … for files they didn’t give us. We’re going to take them and they can’t stop us,” Robert Marleau told the Star.

“I cannot be denied access. I can walk into any federal government premise without notice and take what I need.” [...]

“The powers are there for a reason so that where there is … stonewalling or deliberate obstruction, we can break that jam. By and large, I’m here to serve Canadians. So is the department that is being asked to give a response. We shouldn’t have to have a struggle,” he said.

Marleau is probing complaints about the PCO’s handling of access-to-information requests by Canadians. In particular, he wants answers on 150 cases that involve “administrative” issues – complaints that could include the PCO’s demand for photocopying costs, other fees and time extensions.

Marleau, who announced his retirement this week, made clear there’s no reason why such complaints could not have been informally resolved long ago, saving the time and effort of a drawn-out investigation as well as the frustration of those making the requests.

“We should be able to lick administrative complaints at the early resolution stage,” he said, snapping his fingers for emphasis.

He hinted at one possible motivation – the government’s desire to tie up a file and delay the release of information.

“If you overcharge for photocopies and got a complaint, that file was parked for two years. It takes the pressure off,” Marleau said. “I won’t let that happen any more.”

The Privy Council Office was unable to comment in time for deadline yesterday.

Just imagine the liveblogging possibilities! Not that the media would likely be be allowed to join the raiding party, of course — but we could hang around outside Langevin and wait for the wheelbarrows full of documents to start rolling out.  It would be just like the raid on Conservative HQ — without the cheesy Muzak, and with the added possibility of spotting Guy Giorno scowling down at us from the battlement as he boils the oil.  Of course, now that they know he’s serious — I mean, seriously serious — my guess is that the good folks at PCO will hand over the goods before Marleau shows up at the front door, but still. ITQ can dream, right?

Newsmakers of the week

By Lianne George - Thursday, June 25, 2009 at 9:30 AM - 1 Comment

Arnold’s extra pair
In the spirit of partisan pranks-manship, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently sent a metal sculpture in the shape of bull testicles to California Senate President Darrell Steinberg—a metaphorical reminder of the bold budgetary decisions required by the state’s lawmakers in the face of a US$24.3-billion budget shortfall. Unfortunately, the joke fell flat. Steinberg, who is a Democrat, returned the sculpture to its sender, along with a note stressing the seriousness of the situation. In fairness to the governor, sources told MSNBC.com that the testicles were sent in response to a gag gift Steinberg sent to him—a package of mushrooms—after Schwarzenegger called the Democrat’s budget proposals “hallucinatory.” But the sculpture was apparently too much coming from a man who once called Democrats “girlie men.” When asked why so serious, Steinberg’s spokesperson told reporters, “We’ve got more important things on our plate right now than to waste any more time on such trivial matters.”

Too much information
On Monday, Canada’s Information Commissioner Robert Marleau resigned unexpectedly, only two years into an ostensible seven-year tenure. He was in the process of reforming the country’s access to information laws, which have come to be routinely subverted by secretive government officials. Only one day earlier, Marleau was quoted in a Toronto Star article decrying the whole system. When the Access to Information Act was introduced in 1983, he told the reporter, “we were amongst the leaders in the world.” Since then, he said, “It’s been the same song and dance, no effort by any government to have this legislation or these processes keep pace with time, change and technology.” The reasons for his hasty departure only 24 hours later, he told media, are “entirely personal and private.” Continue…

Coming this fall to Parliament Hill, a new reality series: "Who Wants To Be The Next Embattled Officer of Parliament?"

By kadyomalley - Tuesday, June 23, 2009 at 12:35 PM - 12 Comments

Because really, who wouldn’t want to fill the Robert Marleau-shaped hole over at the Information Commissioner’s office? I mean, if you somehow end up in the government’s bad books with your stubborn insistence on applying the ATI laws as written, you know the opposition has your back, right? Just ask Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page.

Speaking of which, not that anyone has asked ITQ — well, actually, a few of you have, and she apologizes, cartoon Ringo Starr-style,  for the lateness of her reply — but she is utterly baffled by the recommendations of the long-awaited report from the Library of Parliament committee on the even-longer-running battle between Page and Parliamentary Librarian William Young for control of the PBOverse. It isn’t that she disagrees with main conclusion — that the reporting relationship between the two officers has to be straightened out — but the complete absence of any acknowledgment whatsoever of the fact that it’s not Page or Young who is ultimately to blame for the bad blood between their respective microbureaucracies, but a badly drafted law.

Continue…

Farewell Bob Marleau, we barely knew ye! No really — we really, barely knew ye at all!

By Paul Wells - Tuesday, June 23, 2009 at 8:37 AM - 13 Comments

And so Information Commissioner Robert Marleau announces his retirement, prompting a veritable avalanche of how-will-you-be-able-to-tell-he’s-gone jokes.

This corner has been a reluctant critic of Marleau, who is a real gentleman in person and whose contributions to Parliamentary procedure as clerk of the Commons were legion. But he spent a very long time getting ready to criticize this government, even as he would occasionally be heard to whisper that its record on providing a free flow of information was getting more and more alarming. Here’s the combined list of macleans.ca Marleau blog posts. Note especially this post, in which Marleau defended himself against his assorted accusers. I thought that was a really classy move, and I was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. In that interview he said:

But those who are waiting for an attack-dog commissioner will have to wait for the outcomes of what I can do because it’s not normally my posture. There’s a time to bite. There’s a time to bark.  If all you do is bark, then after a while you don’t hear the dog. I’m not saying you have to wag  your tail, but sometimes backing off gives you some results.

Fair enough. So what does he do when it’s time to bite? He retires.

Yesterday’s communiqué cites “personal reasons,” and again I’m inclined to give the benefit of the doubt. There really are personal reasons for making career decisions in Ottawa, and it’s cheap cynicism to discount them. But then Marleau gave an interview to Jim Bronskill, one of the Press Gallery’s most dedicated users of the Access to Information law. And the personal reasons he gives are…well, see for yourself: Continue…

Twirling, twirling towards transparency

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, May 13, 2009 at 1:02 PM - 4 Comments

Vic Toews, yesterday. “This has been the most open government in the history of Confederation and our government is committed to ensuring it remains that way.”

Information Commissioner Robert Marleau, January. “There’s less information being released by government than ever before. And that’s alarming.”

Open Wide: Liveblogging the Info Commissioner's annual report

By kadyomalley - Thursday, February 26, 2009 at 9:21 AM - 11 Comments

At a news conference to discuss the release of his office’s first Special Report in over two years,  Information Commissioner Robert Marleau won’t just be handing out  report cards (although he’ll be doing that, too, and it sounds like some departments won’t be posting the results proudly on the refrigerator door) – he’ll also be discussing “systemic issues related to Access to Information in Canada”.

10:45:06 AM
Greetings from the technical briefing, which is actually more of a lockup, or at least it had turned into one by the time I got here; we’re not actually being briefed, although there’s a helpful InfoComm staffer available to answer any questions that come up. I’m pretty sure that the report itself is under embargo until it is tabled in the House, so I won’t be posting this update until the news conference gets underway.

Anyway, here’s how the various departments fared – the grading is based on a star system, by the way, not letters, which makes me wonder where Sun Media got the idea that there were “F-Bomb”s looming. (Not that receiving only two stars is much better, of course.):

Departments surveyed:
RCMP – ** (below average)
PWGSC – **
PCO – *** (average)
NRCan – *** 1/2 (average)
Library and Archives – **** 1/2 (above average)
Health Canada – **
DFAIT – **
Defence – ** 1/2
Justice – ***** (outstanding)
CBSA – ** 1/2

So – of the ten federal departments and institutions, five were “below average”: the RCMP, Public Works, Health, Foreign Affairs and Defence. PCO – often seen as one of the worst offenders as far as stonewalling requests – managed to eke out that all-important half-star to bump it up to average, and the Department of Justice is at the head of the class. Nevertheless, the report “issues a dire diagnosis for Access to Information in Canada” – and in thirty seconds, the Info Commissioner himself will be here to tell us all about it.

10:58:42 AM
And here he is!

Continue…

Advice for the Information Commissioner: Do your job.

By Michael Petrou - Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 2:00 PM - 2 Comments

Longtime readers of this blog may be familiar with my ongoing battle with the Canadian International Development Agency over an access-to-information request I made in April 2007. I wanted to know about CIDA programs in Zimbabwe, but when CIDA claimed such a supposedly broad request would require thousands of dollars in “research fees,” I narrowed the request to one phase of one program – in other words, nothing too broad or onerous.  

Almost two years later, CIDA still hasn’t completed the request. Every few months or so, I check in with CIDA or the Office of the Information Commissioner, where I registered a formal complaint more than a year ago, mostly just to get my blood boiling, because nothing productive ever results. I did so again this week.

 The Access to Information Act gives the Commissioner the power to subpoena recipients of complaints to give oral evidence and produce records. I asked someone in the office of the new Commissioner, Robert Marleau, how many times Marleau has done this since his appointment in January 2007. The answer: zero. Not once. Apparently, he wants to use a “collaborative” rather than a confrontational approach.

How’s that working out for him? Not so good. 

Marleau, now with less hair

By Paul Wells - Thursday, January 22, 2009 at 9:12 AM - 25 Comments

The information commissioner, who had upset some observers with his apparent passivity in the early innings of the Harper government, appears to have exhausted his considerable supply of patience. In an interview with La Presse, Bob Marleau is seen to be “pulling his hair out” over the growing lack of transparency in Ottawa.

“…They’re taking more extensions, divulging less information, invoking more exemptions than they did in the past,” he says, in regard to a report he will table by May.

A watchdog can’t bite all the time, he says, but by now it’s clear “I’ll have to bark, at a minimum.”

Marleau: The InfoComm speaks! And speaks…

By Paul Wells - Friday, June 20, 2008 at 4:37 PM - 0 Comments

Imagine our surprise here at Macleans.ca when comments appeared on a post about criticism of the new Information Commissioner, Robert Marleau — comments that appeared to come from Robert Marleau. My first reaction was that this was surprising and fun. My second was that “Marleau” was a hoaxer. My third instinct was to call and find out. That instinct used to be faster to kick in. Anyway, it turns out that the guy on the comment board was Marleau indeed. Before long I was in his office asking him about the criticism he’s faced. Here’s the beginning of a long interview, with more extracts to follow:

PW: Thanks for taking the time to talk to me. I’m sorry you were sorely vexed by my blog postings.

Marleau: I didn’t think what I wrote was so much expressing of vexation as expressing a response. Continue…

Access to Information wants to be free. From Robert Marleau.

By kadyomalley - Wednesday, June 11, 2008 at 1:27 PM - 0 Comments

Wells has the full story on the soon-to-be-infamous Drapeau letter, in which the retired colonel has a few home truths for Information Commissioner Robert Marleau, whose ‘triage’ approach to dealing with priority requests “is offensive to the very notion that the access right is quasi-constitutional in nature.”

Marleau, mon petit

By Paul Wells - Saturday, May 31, 2008 at 3:46 PM - 5 Comments

(click to embiggen)

Here’s a table from Information Commissioner Robert Marleau’s new report. Note the second section, for “commissioner-initiated systemic investigations.” That’s fancy talk for “the commissioner takes matters into his own hands and tries to figure out how the government handles inquiries in general.” Note that Marleau’s predecessor, John Reid, initiated almost 400 of those in his last year as commissioner. Note also that Marleau has launched zero during his first. Continue…