Mr. Speaker, the Supreme Court calls access to information laws quasi-constitutional in their weight and import, and the public's right to know what their government is doing is a fundamental cornerstone of democracy, but the access to information system in this country is broken. It is a farce. It is completely dysfunctional. Successive Liberal and Conservative governments have refused to fix it.
It was the culture of secrecy that allowed corruption to flourish in the Liberal years. The Conservative government is even worse. The government is obsessed with secrecy. The Conservatives habitually abuse the use of section 15 exemptions under the act and they virtually deny access through unreasonable delays.
I am holding here one letter from National Defence headquarters that gives itself an extension of 300 days to fill a basic request for information. This is absurd.
The government is obsessed with secrecy. If we do nothing else in this minority Parliament, we must reform the Access to Information Act. The public has a right to know.