Currently, the weakest categories are the Right of Access, Requesting Procedures and Sanctions and Protections, which focus on the legal guarantees for the right, the procedures for making and processing requests for information, and the system of sanctions and protections for releasing or refusing to release information. [...] There are also other areas for improvement, such as providing for the ATI Bill to trump secrecy provisions in other laws, putting overall time limits (say of 20 years) on exceptions and removing the exclusion of some key categories of information from the scope of the Act, such as information related to the Cabinet and the judiciary. [...] Second, while the law has a strong interpretive clause, in section 3, which calls for it to be interpreted in light of the Constitution, the principles set out in section 4 and international instruments, section 4 itself fails to refer to the wider benefits of the right to information, such as controlling corruption, facilitating participation and fostering accountability. [...] The exceptions to this are where reasons are needed to justify special processing of a request, such as when expedited processing is being asked for on the basis that the information is needed to safeguard someone’s life or liberty or where a request is put to a private body on the basis that access is needed for the exercise or protection of a fundamental right. [...] This includes an obligation to inform 19 2 1 40, 43 the requester that the information is not held and to refer the requester to another institution or to transfer the request where the public authority knows where the information is held.
Authors
- Pages
- 20
- Published in
- Canada
