Madam Speaker, I am pleased to take part in this important debate.
Bill C-208 is an act to amend the Access to Information Act. Incidentally, it makes no reference to crown corporations. The intent of these amendments is to provide sanctions against anyone who improperly destroys or falsifies government records in an attempt to deny access to information under the Access to Information Act.
I wish to congratulate the hon. member for Brampton West—Mississauga for her efforts in putting this bill forward. This caucus agrees with the sentiments expressed in the bill.
The Access to Information Act was proclaimed 15 years ago. In an earlier speech the hon. member for Brampton West—Mississauga said “in the 14 years since its inception, government bureaucracy has been sabotaging the intent of the act”.
As I reviewed the files in preparation for my remarks today, I came across a yellowed document from 13 years ago. It is a copy of a presentation made to a national forum on access to information by Ken Rubin from Ottawa. He is extremely well known for his efforts regarding access to information. An Order of Canada should be struck for him someday because he has played a very important role in the history of access to information. Mr. Rubin worked to get the Access to Information Act which he has used very well to ferret out information from government departments.
In his remarks Mr. Rubin said “Users of access to information must suffer for this rare privilege by being put through all kinds of hurdles and rules that emphasize information hide and seek”. I have other clippings that document the frustration that our information commissioners have had in trying to pry public information out of unwilling government departments and agencies.
These cases of departmental stonewalling and obstructions are one thing but recently the situation has become more serious. It is by now completely obvious that certain government departments and agencies have both destroyed and falsified information covered by the Access to Information Act.
Canadians know that defence department officials have altered documents relating to the Somalia inquiry. We also know that health officials have destroyed records on the tainted blood tragedy. This is clearly intolerable in our democracy.
The current information officer, Mr. John Grace, has called on the federal government to punish civil servants who intentionally destroy documents to avoid telling the truth to the public. This is the intention of the bill as we understand it.
I want to make it clear that I am not saying that many, most or all civil servants have been involved in any kind of document tampering or destruction. I also understand that in the Somalia case this destruction of documents occurred because senior officials ordered it done. But there certainly have been incidents.
We must admit that information which is the property ultimately of the people of Canada, information that they have paid for and continue to pay for through their taxes, information that they have the right to see has been wantonly destroyed.
In conclusion, we wish to make it clear that this practice should not be tolerated any further and that the hon. member's bill is an important step in that direction.