News November 22, 2017

Canada's most secretive law enforcement agency: RCMP

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.

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 extra effort into keeping information from reaching public attention.

The awards jury, which comprised representatives of the four press-freedom advocacy groups, recognized the RCMP with this citation:

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, responsible for enforcing the law, is unwilling or incapable of readily providing information mandated under the federal Access to Information Act. As chronicled in News Media Canada’s 2017 Freedom of Information Audit, the RCMP did not respond to any requests for information filed under the Act. This follows a long tradition of secrecy and non-response that has drawn criticism from Canada’s Information Commissioner and from Canada’s Minister of Public Safety.

In light of this persistent determination to deny information to the public, the RCMP has been selected as the winner of the 2017 Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy in the category of Law Enforcement Agencies.

The CAJ, CFE, News Media Canada and CJFE will announce the Code of Silence Award recipient in the Provincial category on November 29. Previously announced recipients of 2017 Code of Silence awards are the Treasury Board of Canada (Federal category) and Toronto Hydro (Local category).

All four organizations will continue to advocate for substantive reform to Canada's federal access-to-information law.

For more information:

James Turk

Director, CFE

613.277.0488

james.turk@ryerson.ca

Vancouver Fire Rescue Services' chill on access to information recognized with Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy

The Vancouver Fire Rescue Services (VFRS) has been selected as this year's recipient of the Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy in the municipal category for its efforts to charge exorbitantly high fees for access to a fire investigation report already paid for by taxpayers.

CFE joins 13 other organizations in deploring government plans to rush the Countering Foreign Interference Act through Parliament without allowing meaningful study

In an open letter today to the members of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, the Centre for Free Expression and 13 other civil society organizations expressed their deep concerns with the speed with which Bill C-70, the Countering Foreign Interference Act, is currently being rushed through the legislative process.

Nova Scotia premier's office recognized with award for punting promises to empower province's information and privacy commissioner

The Premier of Nova Scotia, Tim Houston, has been selected as the 2023 recipient of the provincial Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy for his bait-and-switch on the 2021 election promise by his own government-to-be to strengthen his province's notoriously toothless freedom of information law by giving order-making power to its information. commissioner.