Dimming the lights in Ontario
Blinds being drawn on province's transparency law
Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s spurious excuses for gutting the province’s freedom-of-information (FOI) law are exactly why we need transparency legislation in the first place: governments are habitual liars.
Last week, the Ford government said it plans to weaken its sunshine law by erecting brick walls around every minister’s office, including the premier’s. Freedom-of-information requests will no longer be accepted. The change will be retroactive to 1988, when the law first came into force.
Ford issued a flurry of reasons for the draconian move, apparently hoping one might stick. Take your pick:
The personal and private information of individuals is being released to requesters under the current law.
The cabinet can’t have candid, vigorous debates because their deliberations will be made available to requesters under the current law.
Or if you’re anxious about geopolitics -
“Communist” China is stealing Ontario’s secrets under the current legislation and must be stopped.
As anyone who has ever actually used the legislation will attest, Nos. 1 and 2 are bogus. Robust privacy protections are baked into the law, so much so that they continue for 30 years after the death of an individual. The law also safeguards cabinet deliberations for 20 years, an ironclad provision that was affirmed, endorsed and expanded by the Supreme Court of Canada just two years ago.
As for No. 3, any superpower reduced to using freedom-of-information laws to carry out espionage probably isn’t much of a threat. Under Ontario’s current law, getting useful government information of any kind is like pulling teeth. Getting information about critical infrastructure or security is absolutely impossible, and rightly so.
So Ford is being duplicitous about the reasons for his proposed “modernization” of freedom-of-information. And equipping ordinary citizens to cut through that kind of political bullshit is the very reason we have sunshine laws.
So what is Ford actually up to?
His government lost a major freedom-of-information case at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Dec. 29. A three-judge panel ruled Ford must surrender for review any records from his personal cell phone that contain government business.
The court rejected the argument that the requesters, Global TV and Dr. Brooks Fallis, had no proof that any government business had been conducted on the cell phone. Ford publicizes the telephone number as a direct link to him for Ontarians who want to talk about government business. So hard to imagine that absolutely nobody dialled him up for that purpose.
The province is seeking leave to appeal the ruling at the Ontario Court of Appeal, with a decision expected by the end of next month. But Ford has pulled an ace: his proposed amendments to freedom-of-information are retroactive. So his cell phone records, along with everything else in his office, become immune to FOI requests, effectively quashing the ruling from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
The changes will also inoculate emails, texts, memos and other records inside ministers’ offices against nosy requesters, including those looking for evidence of backroom deals with developers and cronies. Think Greenbelt scandal, or Skills Development controversy.
Another of Ford’s changes would lengthen the basic waiting period for a response to requests, from 30 calendar days to 45 business days. The move would effectively double the basic FOI waiting period, just as the digital era is accelerating everyone’s work life, including reporters’ deadlines. That’s like building a cobblestone road in the age of sportscars.
Ontario’s regressive plan follows rollbacks of freedom-of-information in Nova Scotia, British Columbia and at the federal level, suggesting governments are more emboldened, perhaps inspiring one another about ways to curb the public’s right to know. It’s a race to the bottom, a wider retreat to a darker time.
In a world roiled by tariffs, wars and state coercion, with governments inclining toward autocracy, we need sunshine laws more than ever to bust through the lies. Honk if you agree.