TVO’s The Agenda hosted critical care physician Brooks Fallis, Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner Patricia Kosseim, and Robyn Doolittle and Tom Cardoso, the investigative reporters behind The Globe and Mail’s Freedom of Information series Secret Canada yesterday to discuss the state of Canada’s Freedom of Information (FOI) system.
Dr. Fallis was abruptly terminated from a Greater Toronto Area hospital network after publicly criticizing the Ontario government. He described his difficult experience attempting to retrieve information about his termination using Ontario’s Freedom of Information system.
Speaking about the Freedom of Information process in general, Commissioner Kosseim described various types of problems caused by “both parties”, including under-resourced Freedom of Information offices as well as requestors who can be slow to respond in the appeals process, who refuse to narrow their request, or who file the occasional frivolous or vexatious request which can “delay or gum up” the system.
“It’s the fundamental underpinning of a healthy democracy. So we can’t afford for the system not to work. It has to be fit for purpose. It has to be modernized.”
Information and Privacy Commissioner Patricia Kosseim, June 26, 2023 on TVO’s The Agenda
Journalist Robyn Doolittle stated “you are more likely to face consequences for a parking ticket in this country” whereas making an improper decision to withhold documents in response to a freedom of information request generally has “no consequences” other than the documents eventually being released, assuming an appeal is even pursued. She continued: “are you going to release something that might upset your boss or your boss’s boss when there are absolutely no consequences for not doing it?”
Journalist Tom Cardoso stated be believes the problems with the system lie more with management and upper management rather than at the level of the FOI Coordinator. He praised the newly reformed Newfoundland and Labrador FOI system with “no fees in most cases”, 275% more FOI requests than before, and “every single appeal is completed within 13 weeks as a matter of course, they never take longer than that.”
Commissioner Kosseim raised the importance of both culture and law, and also noted how technological tools can help accelerate the FOI process in an age when the expectations of the public are higher than ever.
“It’s important not to throw FOI Coordinators under the bus. A lot of these are very dedicated public servants. They’re in these jobs because they care about transparency and they are really just trying to fulfill their responsibilities and do the best they can with limited resources. […]”
“Another thing is a lot of them are dealing with chronically under-resourced offices. Of course, resources, as a matter of priority, budgets are constrained, but in the end, it’s how you allocate the money.”
Information and Privacy Commissioner Patricia Kosseim, June 26, 2023 on TVO’s The Agenda
It was a fascinating discussion and well worth 35 minutes to watch. The episode is now available on demand via the TVO website.
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