Canada’s freedom of information laws scored last in a study released by British academics last week.
The study evaluated the effectiveness of laws in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and The United Kingdom.
And we came in dead last, while New Zealand scored top marks.
Published in the journal, Government Information Quarterly, the study questions the political will behind faults in Canada’s freedom of information laws. It targeted low use, low political support and “a weak information commissioner” as reasons for the poor showing.
The study was researched and written by Robert Hazell and Ben Worthy of University College in London who call Canada’s laws antiquated.
Although Canada was a forerunner in freedom-of-information, passing a landmark law in 1983, in recent years the government has come under fire from groups like the Canadian Association of Journalists, who twice skewered Stephen Harper with its Code of Silence Award.
But Parry Sound-Muskoka member of Parliament Tony Clement defends his government’s record.
“This government fought for Canadians’ right to know how their government operates, and our record is clear. Let’s look at the facts: We gotrid of the system used by Liberals to centralize control of access to information; we opened up the Wheat Board, the CBC, and dozens of other institutions to the Access to Information Act; 70 new institutions are now accountable to Canadians through the Access to Information Act. For the first time, Canadians can see how these institutions spend their tax dollars.
These are important steps forward for openness and transparency – steps the previous government never took,” he wrote in an email to this paper.