Access-to-Information

OTTAWA / Nov. 22 / CNW — The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is the 2017 recipient of the Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy in the category of law enforcement agencies.

Toronto Hydro is the 2017 recipient of the Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy in the category of local government departments and agencies. The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ), Centre for Free Expression at Ryerson University(CFE), News Media Canada and Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) have joined forces to expand an award that the CAJ has for almost 20 years handed out to government departments, agencies or public bodies that put that extra bit of elbow grease into keeping any sunlight from reaching public attention.

Canada's most secretive federal department: The Treasury Board of Canada OTTAWA / Oct. 18 / CNW — Ottawa's point-man on access-to-information reform, Scott Brison, heads the Treasury Board of Canada which is this year's first recipient of the Code of Silence Award for outstanding achievement in government secrecy. 

By Ken Rubin October 9, 2017 - Successive bureaucrats have wanted to put dampers on the public use of access to information legislation. Now they have found hope in Bill C-58 and a willing dupe in Treasury Board President Scott Brison. While Prime Minister Trudeau can be counted on to have flights of open government flowery rhetoric, faceless bureaucrats have held to their beliefs that access users are to be tamed.

  The Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau Prime Minister of Canada  Office of the Prime Minister  80 Wellington Street Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2   Dear Prime Minister,  We are deeply disappointed with your government’s access to information legislation, Bill C-58, that is before the House of Commons this fall. At a time when many countries have far superior legislation, and on a day that celebrates internationally the public's right to know, Bill C-58 offers very little to fix our broken transparency law.