Acting Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault should immediately launch an investigation into political interference by the Harper government under the Access to Information Act, Liberal MPs said today.
“This is a clear-cut case of the Harper government’s direction to deny or limit Access to Information requests that reveal their mismanagement,” said Liberal Treasury Board Critic Siobhan Coady. “Direction to not disclose information comes from the Prime Minister’s office. The Harper government has routinely pressured non-partisan ministry officials, from Deputy Ministers on down, to prevent disclosure of politically damaging information.
“That’s why the Information Commissioner must investigate all instances of Conservative interference and order the public release of all politically-censored documents.”
The office of former Public Works Minister Christian Paradis stopped the release of a sensitive 137-page report that had been requested by the media, ordering public service officials to “unrelease” the report after the Access to Information office at Public Works and Government Services Canada had already determined there was no legal basis for withholding it. Eighty-two days later than allowed under the law, a heavily censored version that had been reduced to 30 pages was released.
Likewise, a March 2008 Access to Information Request by the Liberal Caucus Research Bureau for all documents concerning Canada’s decision to stop Afghan detainee transfers (see link to background document) was denied in December 2009 – 639 days later – after the issue had become a full-blown political controversy for the Conservative government. The request was denied because the reports could be used in “anticipated or contemplated litigation.”
“The Conservative government campaigned on greater accountability to the public, but when in government, they have cloaked all political damaging information in a veil of secrecy,” said Liberal MP Marcel Proulx. “As with the multiple avenues this government has blocked to cover up the Afghan detainee controversy, we now see how this government will sacrifice transparency to mask their own mismanagement.”
“We can see why the Conservatives tried to cover up this report, given the evidence of mismanagement and waste of taxpayer money. Maintenance costs are far higher for government real estate than in the private sector, and vacancy rates are 50% higher than their own internal target,” said Liberal Public Works Critic Martha Hall Findlay. “Taxpayers have a right to see this information, and to ask why this Conservative government is wasting their money.”
The Conservative government has gone through two Information Commissioners in four years and has failed to appoint another permanent Commissioner since last summer.