Mr. Stanley Tromp at the Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics Committee

On March 11th, 2009. See this statement in context.

March 11th, 2009 / 4:15 p.m.

Coordinator, Canadian Association of Journalists

I have one comment on that, if I have time.

In Canada's original freedom of information bill, Bill C-15 of 1979, cabinet confidences were subject to a mandatory exemption, not an exclusion. That was an enlightened early draft, and I hope the current ATI Act could return to that.

Also, nine Commonwealth nations have a mandatory exemption for records. Better yet, the United Kingdom's is a discretionary exemption, and five of those nine are subject to public interest overrides. More than 50 other FOI statutes in the world have no specific exemption for cabinet records at all. There are models abroad.

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