Latest news with #CodeofSilenceAward
Cision Canada
28-05-2025
- Politics
- Cision Canada
Sault Ste. Marie Police Service recognized with national award for imposing a transparency tax on public records
TORONTO, May 28, 2025 /CNW/ - The Sault Ste. Marie Police Service has been selected as this year's recipient of the Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy, in the law enforcement category, for its sweeping new plan to increase service fees to access documents and records. "This is a transparency tax, plain and simple," said Brent Jolly, president of the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ). "This is a weaponization of fees to prevent people from gaining access to records. Public information should not be turned into a revenue stream by a publicly-funded body." According to the Sault Star, the fee increase will apply to all sorts of documents, ranging from court subpoenas to officers' notes. The police board will also introduce fees for several new services, including police body-worn camera and in-car camera footage, and will charge for redactions to remove sensitive information. Requests for information under the Municipal Freedom of Information law will incur a $15 fee for every 15 minutes of staff time. The police board said the fee increase, the first since 2011, is needed to offset increased labour costs. "The math just doesn't add up," Jolly said. "The public is paying a dollar a minute for staff time to access information, but the staff accessing those records are paid less than a dollar per minute." The Code of Silence Awards are presented annually by the CAJ, the Centre for Free Expression at Toronto Metropolitan University (CFE), and the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE). The awards call public attention to government or publicly-funded agencies that work hard to hide information to which the public has a right to under access to information legislation. Previous winners in the law enforcement category include: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Toronto Police Service. The law enforcement award completes this year's Code of Silence Awards program. In addition to the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service, other 'winners' in this year's program included Canada's federal government for its ongoing fight with Indigenous groups seeking access to records surrounding residential schools; Doug Ford's Ontario government; and Vancouver Coastal Health.
Hamilton Spectator
22-05-2025
- Business
- Hamilton Spectator
Region says it's got 70% of Wilmot industrial site, but details remain elusive
Waterloo Region's latest update on its plans to turn 770 acres of Wilmot farmland into an industrial park left the public with more questions than answers, say opponents. In a restrictive press conference on May 14, officials announced they have secured more than 70 per cent of the farmland. The wording was ambiguous about whether or not the region had actually bought the land, said environmentalist Kevin Thomason. 'You'll notice the region never said they bought the land or owned the land. It just said they've secured access to the land, so they can go on and study the land. 'They kept trying to convince us and say that it's all this sort of doublespeak. You've got to read between the lines, and you've got to try to see what they're saying. They're not telling the truth. And the press release they sent out is full of misinformation.' Last week's event was only the second one held by the region, prompting Thomason to note there's a good reason the region received a dishonourable mention for the Canadian Association of Journalists' Code of Silence Award for Government Secrecy. 'How can this be in the best public interest? And why is our region doing this to our own public, the region that, in the past, has always been the leader in the province and now being called out as the laggard in the entire country?' added Thomason. In the press release, the region mentions the need for shovel-ready land that is capable of supporting large-scale development projects. 'Reaching this major milestone gets us significantly closer to securing long-term investment and economic prosperity locally,' said Chair Karen Redman in the release. 'It's imperative, now more than ever, that Waterloo Region be ready to support Canadian manufacturing and well-paying, local jobs.' Thomason took issue with that claim, calling it false and noting that Waterloo Region has thousands of acres of shovel-ready land sitting vacant. He added that Wilmot Township itself has 95 acres in its industrial park that have sat vacant for 23 years without a single lot sold, for example. 'We've got thousands of acres, and there are just so many things that, right from the beginning, show that this has just been such a bungled fiasco by the region,' said Thomason. The region said last week it's committed to beginning to do its due diligence on these areas. Officials also mentioned that they would continue planting on the lands where appropriate and that no existing crops would be removed and would be harvested once ready. That policy reverses last summer's decision to destroy 160 acres of feed corn on land it had acquired. The bare land was allowed to sit empty with no cover crop, leading to soil erosion difficulties this spring. 'No farmer in the world would leave their fields bare and exposed to the weather for nine months straight, like the region has done,' said Thomason. The region said in the release that we have missed out on major employers who have gone elsewhere due to the 'absence of large, shovel-ready sites.' To date, the region has not listed an employer needing a 700-acre site that has decided not to settle down in Waterloo. The two common examples brought up are Schneider's and Dr. Oetker, which were 50 acres or smaller, and Waterloo has many readily available sites of that size, noted Thomason. The region continues to tout the benefits, saying the site meets 'global standards and offers strategic advantages,' which they listed as: a large, contiguous development footprint, immediate access to Highway 7/8 and arterial transportation routes, existing hydro, water, and wastewater infrastructure, location outside water protection areas, proximity to Waterloo Region's skilled workforce and world-class post-secondary institutions, and tech sector. Thomason told The Observer that the advantages listed by the regions are all incorrect. He pointed to claims that the site has a large contiguous development footprint, noting that the site is bisected by roadways, a major hydro corridor and several streams. Thomason said there would be no readily available workforce given that the site is 50-km round trip for anyone from KW or Cambridge, adding that there's already a labour shortage. Also problematic, he said, was the lack of infrastructure, which would require a massive cost to build. 'There's no water there. There's no sewage there. There's no road or transportation infrastructure. They say it's on a highway, but that highway doesn't even go to the border,' added Thomason. 'You've got a factory with a thousand trucks daily or whatever coming to it. They're going to have to wind their way all through the streets of Kitchener or whatever to try to get on the 401, go west to Detroit or other places.' The Fight for Farmland opposition efforts are as important today as they were when the project came to light, he added. 'The need… is greater than ever. The need for the community to push back is greater than ever, and that's exactly what's happening,' said Thomason. 'We're going to fight for the better future that we know we need, and not be destroyed by this secret backroom plan that no one has had any input on.'
Cision Canada
14-05-2025
- Health
- Cision Canada
Who do you serve, actually? National transparency groups call out Vancouver Coastal Health for restricting information during the COVID-19 pandemic
TORONTO, May 14, 2025 /CNW/ - Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), the public agency responsible for delivering community and acute care services to more than a quarter of B.C.'s population, has been selected as the 2024 recipient of the municipal Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy for its routine breaking of access to information laws during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a Sept. 2024 report, Michael Harvey, B.C.'s Information and Privacy Commissioner, found multiple examples of how the health authority failed to meet the province's standards. For example, the audit found only a quarter of public requests met the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act's 30-day response benchmark. In almost three quarters of responses, VCH failed to comply with the Act's time limits. This resulted in the agency sometimes extending the time limit without a valid reason or the agency applied an extension to respond even after the original time limit to respond had already passed. About one-third of the time, the authority did not even acknowledge a request for information was received. "The COVID-19 pandemic placed a premium on timely access to medical information to combat the virus," said Philip Tunley, a director of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE). "In a profession usually committed to informed decision-making by patients and to doing no harm, VHC miserably failed to rise to that basic challenge." In his report, Harvey acknowledged that while VCH was under unprecedented pressures during the pandemic, the audit also pointed to other more systemic problems. These included: Following a 2021 amendment to FIPPA, VCH, like other public bodies, decided to charge a $10 FOI application fee for general access requests. VCH administered this fee by only accepting payment by cheque or money order, unnecessarily exacerbating the barrier to access. The agency later changed this approach. VCH has a policy for routinely releasing certain records without the need for an FOI request, also known as proactive disclosure. However, contrary to this policy, there were instances where VCH processed requests for these records as an FOI request and charged the application fee, rather than pointing applicants to where the records were already publicly available. Further, some records that were already public were difficult to find online. VCH was particularly unresponsive to the media during this period. The average number of days it took to respond to FOI requests from the media was 116 days, peaking at 171 days in 2021/2022. Upon completion of the audit, Harvey made eight recommendations to improve VCH's compliance with B.C.'s FIPPA rules. These recommendations included expediting communication with individuals seeking information, and strengthening policies around records management. This year's Code of Silence jury also agreed to bestow a dishonourable mention to the Region of Waterloo, located in the heart of southwestern Ontario's greenbelt. Community groups and journalists have faced an up-hill battle to get access to information from the region on a controversial mega-project that will impact local farmland. The challenge of building consensus and citizen engagement in rural communities becomes impossible when responsible agencies withhold information about projects of this nature," Tunley said. The Code of Silence Awards are presented annually by the CAJ, the Centre for Free Expression at Toronto Metropolitan University (CFE), and the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE). The awards call public attention to government or publicly-funded agencies that work hard to hide information to which the public has a right to under access to information legislation. Vancouver Fire Rescue Services (VFRS) was the recipient of the Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy in the municipal category last year for charging exorbitantly high fees for access to a fire investigation report already paid for by taxpayers. The final 2024 Code of Silence Award, for the law enforcement category, will be announced on May 28. SOURCE Canadian Association of Journalists
Cision Canada
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Cision Canada
Ontario's Greenbelt email-gate scandal nabs national lack of transparency award
TORONTO, April 30, 2025 /CNW/ - Doug Ford's Ontario government has been selected as the 2024 recipient of the provincial Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy for its continued failure to prevent senior employees from using their personal email accounts to also conduct public business. In Nov. 2024, the Toronto Star reported that a senior Ford government staffer implicated in Ontario's Greenbelt scandal refused to hand over emails that may have been sent from a personal email account to other government staffers and lobbyists interested in developing the protected land. This year's Code of Silence jury found this violation of Ontario's Freedom of Information laws was particularly egregious in light of the fact that Bonnie Lysyk, Ontario's Auditor General, stipulated in an August 2023 report that using non-governmental resources to conduct official government business was unacceptable. The staffer at the centre of the controversy resigned from his position after the Auditor General's report found he did not abide by the best practices provided to bureaucrats. "Communication between lobbyists and political staff using their personal email accounts also creates the perception of preferential access and treatment, and thereby an unfair advantage to those receiving unauthorized confidential information from political staff," Lysyk wrote in her report. James L. Turk, director of the Centre for Free Expression at Toronto Metropolitan University said having the Premier of Ontario and his staff conduct public business from personal devices and accounts flies in the face of current FOI laws. "This all undermines public rights to information under Ontario freedom of information legislation," said Turk. "Emails by one Ford government executive on his personal account may hold some answers to the Greenbelt controversies, but the government has claimed they have no 'legal mechanism' to compel return of the messages when the practice was exposed – conveniently keeping the emails hidden from public scrutiny." This year's Code of Silence jury also agreed to bestow a dishonourable mention on thirteen Saskatchewan ministries who disregarded a decision by the province's Information Commissioner to have records released in a machine-readable format to The Globe and Mail as part of its Secret Canada project. The Saskatchewan government has said it provided all the records requested, subject to exemptions and was "not considering changes to the province's access to information legislation." The Code of Silence Awards are presented annually by the CAJ, the Centre for Free Expression at Toronto Metropolitan University (CFE), and the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE). The awards call public attention to government or publicly-funded agencies that work hard to hide information to which the public has a right to under access to information legislation. Last year, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston was recognized as the provincial Code of Silence winner for his office's punting of promises to empower the province's information and privacy commissioner. The remaining 2024 Code of Silence Awards will be handed out bi-weekly. This year's winner in the municipal category will be announced on May 14.
