moved for leave to introduce Bill C-208, an act to amend the Access to Information Act.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to introduce this bill today. This bill would provide stiff penalties against any person who improperly destroys or falsifies government records in an attempt to deny right of access to information under the Access to Information Act. This bill is about the protection of our public records.
In January of this year, federal information commissioner John Grace released his report to the Minister of Health on his lengthy investigations into the tainted blood scandal. In this report specific mention was made of the fact that there are no sanctions in place against public servants who may be found to have improperly destroyed records.
In his annual report, released two days ago, the commissioner reiterated his concerns about document tampering by public servants and renewed his call for the creation of penalties for those actions.
This bill provides us with the necessary tools to prevent future occurrences of document tampering.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed.)