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Feds trying to block release of Senate scandal documents

The federal government is asking that documents about four senators including Patrick Brazeau, Pamela Wallin and Mike Duffy not be released.
The federal government is asking that documents about four senators including Patrick Brazeau, Pamela Wallin and Mike Duffy not be released. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

The government is asking the Federal Court of Appeal to quash an order for the release of documents about four senators at the heart of the 2013 Senate spending scandal.

The appeal filed late last month came on the same day lawyers for the federal transparency watchdog filed their own appeal to more fully reveal details in dozens of pages about Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin, Patrick Brazeau and Mac Harb.

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Both sides believe a Federal Court judge erred in his analysis of how federal officials decided to withhold more than two dozen pages of internal documents and his subsequent decision to release parts of the documents.

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Neither side in the case has responded to a request for comment.

It is the latest twist in a two-year-old legal battle between the Prime Minister’s Office and the information commissioner stemming from an access to information request The Canadian Press filed in 2013 at the height of the spending scandal.

And it all arrives as the Liberals are facing criticism over legislation to reform the transparency law at the centre of the case.

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