News February 16, 2021

Quebec Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks wins the provincial 2020 Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy

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.

"Obstructing the free flow of information between different levels of government to address a critical environmental issue is disgraceful behaviour," said Peter Jacobsen, chair of the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression Canadian Issues Committee.

Ultimately, Environment Canada was forced to file access to information requests to get the scientific data from Quebec. Quebec told the Ottawa Citizen that it only asked for formal access requests "where appropriate," but gave no further explanation.

The Code of Silence Awards are presented annually by The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ); the Centre for Free Expression at Ryerson University (CFE); News Media Canada; and Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE).

The intent of the awards is to call public attention to government or publicly funded agencies that work hard to hide information to which the public has a right under access to information legislation.

Recent winners in the provincial category include: The Government of Alberta, Ambulance New Brunswick, and Saskatchewan's Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure.

Last week, the Federal Cabinet was recognized for outstanding achievement in government secrecy at the federal level 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.

The Code of Silence Award recipients in the municipal and law enforcement categories will be announced over the next two weeks.

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.

CFE Closing Submission to the Foreign Interference Commission