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The City of North Bay, Ont., has been named as the recipient of the 2020 Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy in the municipal category.  The city is being recognized because of repeated efforts to circumvent basic transparency and accountability measures expected of democratic governments. Among the laundry list of concerns brought to the attention of the Code of Silence jury were:  

Senior Justice Canada lawyer and former whistleblower, Edgar Schmidt, is joining the Centre for Free Expression Whistleblowing Initiatives Steering Committee, the body that guides all aspects of the Centre’s work on whistleblowing issues. “Edgar will bring invaluable experience and knowledge to the Centre for Free Expression’s advocacy, assistance, research, and public education with respect to whistleblowing,” said James L. Turk, director of the Centre. 

By Ken Rubin Treasury Board rules note that departments should categorize just how risky their planned uses of AI are. Those algorithm impact assessments could help the public understand the risks and uses of AI. Under the current broad exemptions of the Access to Information and Privacy Acts, the details of departmental AI use could be denied as being proprietary or matters of national security, law enforcement and government economic interest.

CFE et al. Intervener Factum - Supreme Court of Canada – Publication Bans

Quebec's Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks has been named as the recipient of the 2020 Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy in the provincial category.  The provincial ministry is being recognized for its unwillingness to share lab data with scientists at Environment Canada related to four mysterious fish kills that took place during the summer of 2019. At the time, dead fish showed up in the Ottawa River, with the source believed to be the Lièvre River, east of Ottawa and Gatineau. 

The Federal Cabinet is the 2020 recipient of the Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy in the federal category. The Cabinet is recognized for suppressing public access to details about very large loans—at times amounting to billions of dollars—given to corporations out of the public purse.