Freedom of Information

Why am I not surprised?

Delay, denial and stonewalling still clog FOI system

A request for sewage-treatment records in Hamilton inspired a city staff worker to curtly declare that she couldn't let a member of the public see the documents. The reporter was told to file a formal information request. In Windsor, a reporter was bluntly told: “Those records are not given out to the public.”

Hopefully the Star will be doing a story on this some time in the future. This is a worthwhile project conducted each year by the media across Canada. It highlights how woefully inadequate our Freedom of Information legislation is and how poorly governments at all levels treat the public's access to information their tax dollars pay for.