Protesting the Weakening of FOI Laws in Bulgaria

At the request of International Freedom of Information Advocates Network, a European-based FOI advocacy group of which RTKNS is a member, and at the invitation of Toby Mendel of Article 19, I have attached our Coalition to a protest letter to the Bulgarian Government. The Bulgarian Government plans to amend its Act to require applicants to have a legal interest in the information requested (whatever that means) and to declare that it's all or nothing. If anything in a record is off FOI limits, then it all is; no severing of information .

The protest includes advocacy groups and others from some thirty countries. So far we are the only ones from this side of the pond. The flood of support is incredible.

Darce

Darce Fardy
President
Right to Know Coalition of Nova Scotia
(902) 422-1481
darce@eastlink.ca
http://www.nsrighttoknow.ca/

More on the issue:

21 MAY 2007
International FOI Advocates Protest Draft Amendments that would Weaken Bulgarian Public Information Act(Note that the protest letter is available at this address as well)

No wonder right to know activists get depressed.

In its May 1, 2007 edition the Globe and Mail carried two federal secrecy issues back to back.

In one an RCMP Officer complains that he saw requests to the RCMP for information involving the force's controversial pension plan delayed and obstructed. And this from the man who recently retired as a senior officer in RCMP Access to Information.

The Officer told a House of Commons Committee that the RCMP leadership took nine months to deliver records that could have been made availabe in 60 days. "And the version that was finally shipped out was so heavily editted that few actual words were visible between the vast swaths of blank ink".

The story on the next page is headlined: "Judge, Arar join to uncloak torture report secrecy." According to the writer of the story the public is still not allowed to see the blacked out portion, not even after a $15-million public inquiry that lasted more than three years".

Obstruction like this happens because not enough Canadians seem to care. And citizen pressure is the only thing that will get governments' attention.

2007 Spring Conference of the Municipal Development Officers Association for Nova Scotia (April 18th to 20th, Antigonish)

About 25 people attended the annual meeting, which put a day aside to discuss freedom of information and privacy. David Fraser, a solicitor specializing in privacy and Bob Doherty from Department of Justice spoke in the morning and I spoke in the afternoon.

It was good to see a municipal organization spend an entire day on access to information issues.

I spoke about our coalition and why we believed it necessary to promote openness and accountability. I provided some examples of difficulties people have had getting information from municipalities and how too many of them were ignoring their obligation under Part XX of the Municipal Government Act which contained freedom of information legislation. Part XX and the MGA is similar to the Freedom of Information Act, which applies to government and its agencies, school boards, hospitals and universities.

Diana Whalen is the second to respond to Darce's query on Freedom of Information views sent to all four of the Nova Scotia Liberal Party leadership candidates. We welcome her comments and thank her for supporting our cause in the Legislature back in January of this year.

Greg Pemberton
RTKNS Web Administrator

From: Diana Whalen

To: Darce Fardy

Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2007 10:09 AM

Subject: Re: Right to Know Coalition of Nova Scotia

Dear Mr. Fardy:

Thank you for the opportunity to give my views on Freedom of Information. First, let me agree with you that transparency and openness are important in the efforts to re-engage citizens and voters in the electoral system.

You may recall that this past January, I introduced a Resolution in the Legislature calling upon the Government to reduce the Freedom of Information fees, and to make the position of Freedom of Information officer report to the Legislature. I believe both of these measures would make information more accessible to citizens, and reinforce the importance of transparency and openness in our democracy.

Diana Whalen

Nova Scotia Liberal Party Leadership 2007

This response to Darce's query on right to know views is from Mike Smith, the first from one of the four candidates in the Nova Scotia Liberal Leadership Race 2007. We greatly appreciate Mr. Smith taking the time and making the effort to provide us with his opinions on freedom of information.

Greg Pemberton
RTKNS Web Admin


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Received: Thursday, March 22, 2007 10:31 AM

Dear Mr. Fardy,

Thank you for your email. Thank you also for your recent article in the Herald.

One of the most significant and important changes brought in with the Municipal Government Act was clarity around the practice of in camera decisions. I support the principles set out in the legislation and as Mayor and Warden adhered strictly to the principle of openness and to the belief in the limited application of the exceptions when an in camera meeting can be held. I am confident the media that covered Council in the last ten years support that view.

The cost of providing access to public records is part of the cost of doing the business of government. The fees in place presently are a disincentive to access. I cannot comment specifically on the fees that should be imposed but I do believe that the costs should be limited to a modest recovery of actual out of pocket costs like photocopying. With access to electronic storage it seems to me that even those costs would be unnecessary.

I am reminded of the recent controversy between AIMS and various school boards and the difficulty that they encountered in getting access to basic information critical to issues of accountability. In that case I recall it was not just the cost of access, which would have been in the thousands of dollars, but the fact that the school boards were not keeping information in a way that was easily accessible to the public. This suggests an institutional embrace of openness is required.

Regards,

Mike Smith