News October 15, 2018

Niagara Region named most secretive municipal government in Canada

ST. CATHARINES, ON, Oct. 15, 2018 /CNW/ - The Regional Municipality of Niagara is the 2018 recipient of the Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy in the category of municipal government.

The award is given annually by The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ), Centre for Free Expression at Ryerson University (CFE), News Media Canada and Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) to call public attention to government departments and agencies that put extra effort into denying public access to government information to which the public has a right under access to information legislation.

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

Regional Municipality of Niagara wins the 2018 Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy for delaying or denying FOI requests and forcing lengthy and expensive appeal processes, as well as refusing to communicate with local media on issues of public interest. Extensive coverage by Grant Lafleche, reporter for St. Catharines newspaper The Standard, exposes secrecy around council members' expenses and refusals to speak on high profile public issues, as well as requests from several council members to fire The Standard's management and replace them with those more compliant with Regional Municipality of Niagara's wants.

This past year has seen Regional Municipality of Niagara as the subject of two Ontario Ombudsman investigations: the first, for an unlawful seizure of a reporter's notes at a council meeting, and most recently, suspicions of a tainted hiring process for a high paying chief administrative officer job.

The coalition of press-freedom groups will announce the federal and provincial recipients of this year's Code of Silence awards in the weeks to come.

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

Ontario Government Agency Imposing Corporate Secrecy Practices on the Public

Infrastructure Ontario and Metrolinx, both provincial mega-agencies using, exclusively, public-private infrastructure partnerships, have imposed a requirement on the public that is supposedly being served, according to a Toronto Star article (March 19). That is, any community member that wants to participate in the ‘consultations’ regarding the expropriation and tearing down of the local Riverdale Plaza (one of the many sites designated by the province as a future ‘transit-oriented community’, known by locals as ‘developer-oriented transit’) needs to sign a “non-disclosure” agreement.

CFE Closing Submission to the Foreign Interference Commission

CFE urged the Commission to act on the testimony of expert panels and witnesses that there is an immense public interest in transparency regarding foreign interference. "The Commission cannot defer to the Government of Canada’s conclusions on what can and cannot be disclosed [but must] be prepared to seek recourse in Federal Court on an expedited basis" in the event the Government attempts to overly restrict public access to essential documents about foreign interference.

Ontario Government Agency Imposing Corporate Secrecy Practices on the Public

CFE Closing Submission to the Foreign Interference Commission

CFE Opening Submission to the Foreign Interference Commission