The Ford government is planning to change transparency laws in Ontario to stop the release of any messages involving ministers and staff, a retroactive move which could also keep the premier’s cellphone records permanently secret.
A new law set to be tabled by Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement Stephen Crawford will exempt all public records from ministers and slow down the timeline for the release of other information.
“If a minister is talking to a minister, the premier’s office is directing a minister to do something, we will not know,” Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said.
“Let’s be very clear, these are public servants. Every single one of us is a public servant and, as such, everything that we do and say should be subject to freedom of information laws.”
Under Ontario’s current framework, the public is entitled to request documents and communications from civil servants and politicians, with some elements redacted to protect independent decision making, advice to politicians and legal advice, among a myriad of other exemptions.
Many records relating to ministers and their staff are already exempted under those rules. Now, every decision, message and document held only by a political staffer or cabinet minister will not be made public.
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Information and Privacy Commissioner Patricia Kosseim blasted the proposals as “shocking” that “seriously undermine” the principles of access to information.
“The most alarming proposal would prevent Ontarians from accessing any government information held by the Premier, cabinet ministers, elected officials, and political staff,” she wrote in a statement.
“To be crystal clear: FIPPA (like other freedom of information laws across the country) already protects personal, confidential, and constituency records from disclosure. This amendment is about hiding government-related business to evade public accountability.”
Essentially, once enacted, the new law will mean that records of the premier, cabinet ministers, parliamentary assistants and their offices would no longer be subject to freedom-of-information laws. Members of the public could still request records held by public servants in government ministries.
That would include Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s personal cellphone, which a court has ordered the premier to release because he is using it to conduct public business.
More than three years ago, Global News filed a freedom of information request for call logs from Ford’s personal phone. The request was denied, but an appeal found the premier was regularly communicating government work on his personal phone.
Ontario’s transparency watchdog ordered the premier to hand his phone over to civil servants to work on releasing the information, before the government appealed.
The province lost its request for a judicial review at one Ontario court through a decision that took less than three weeks to come down. It is now fighting the issue at the appeal court.
The government insists the move is not about changing the rules after losing two legal challenges to release Ford’s phone records.
“The methods of communication were very different,” Crawford said.
“We didn’t have smartphones. We didn’t have cyber threats. We didn’t have cloud computing. I mean, when this legislation was written it was 10 years before the Spice Girls were a thing. So that’s how long ago this legislation was written. It didn’t contemplate the modern world that we’re in today.”
Crawford did not explain the connection between the advent of smartphones and a need to restrict public access to cabinet ministers’ records, but Stiles said she believes they want to avoid having to disclose records like text messages.
“I actually think this is why these laws are more important than ever,” she said.
“Obviously we don’t all write letters to each other anymore on notepads, right? It’s changed, and the laws should keep up with that, but what they should be doing is expanding access, not actually removing access to that information.”
— with files from The Canadian Press
How very conservative of him. Ford doesn’t stop
Elbows up… Bow to the King of Canada Ford . How does he get to speak for all Canadians?
Ford is the essence of corruption. When he doesn’t get his way he goes to his signature move, change the law. I call B.S. he’s changing because the law is 40 yrs old.
How liberal of them. Bottoms up, Dougie!
Hide the corruption.