Information & Ethics committee  Institutions are struggling to respond to the increased number of requests within the time limits provided by the act. The act says that the responses are supposed to be within 30 days. We see institutions such as the RCMP receiving more requests than they are able to respond to,

Information & Ethics committee  Public servants need to know that the information belongs to Canadians. They are there to provide the information and not to hide it, or not to redact it. The first thing they need to do is change the culture of secrecy within the government so that information is shared.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, definitely. Ultimately, without access to information, without knowing our rights, without knowing what's going on in government, we can't understand what's going on at that level, make democratic decisions or vote. Based on the Supreme Court's interpretation, it's all part

Information & Ethics committee  Isn't that the foundation all the time when we make any decision in our lives? We need to know the facts so we know what to base the decision on. To be able to make so‑called informed choices, we need the whole story, all the information that should be considered.

Information & Ethics committee  Lack of information can lead us to misunderstand, and therefore, as we said earlier, to conceive our own ideas and lapse into conspiracy theories. So, yes, it certainly can lead to many negative outcomes.

Information & Ethics committee  It totally does. If people find out afterwards that information wasn't given to them or provided to them in a timely manner or that they didn't have the right facts and the right information, they can't trust that the next time they will get all that. That's why I said to you tha

Information & Ethics committee  As I said, a few institutions have actually challenged the orders, most of the time because they've found that the timelines I gave them were unreasonable. They were trying to obtain longer delays to respond to an access request.

Information & Ethics committee  Most of the time we have to settle, because the orders have been respected by the time we get a hearing. Basically, the system of going to court is to gain some additional time.

Information & Ethics committee  We have our own legal counsel, but I had to increase my legal counsel team by three employees to respond to that.

Information & Ethics committee  I totally agree with Michael. Yes, we definitely need more information out there, not people trying to figure out what the information is. As you said earlier, when you receive a document that's redacted and later on you find out through the investigation that the information t

Information & Ethics committee  Last year I issued 157 orders.

Information & Ethics committee  Most of them were. I think we have now up to nine cases on which the institution decided to challenge the orders and one on which they ignored the order and we had to apply for a mandamus to force them to respect the order that was issued.

Information & Ethics committee  The top five institutions are always the ones that will get the most orders, because they have so many files. They are Library and Archives, the RCMP, PCO, National Defence, and I can't remember the fifth one but I can send you the name.

Information & Ethics committee  We don't have a special classification for the positions themselves; it's a special delegation from the minister. I have about 23 employees who have that delegation, and their clearance takes a normal clearance time, like for the RCMP clearance for secret. We have only a few top

Information & Ethics committee  It's definitely difficult to have somebody who has the expertise. Imagine, from my office, hiring these people. I understand that within the government it's difficult as well, because the same documents are being reviewed not only by my office but by the analysts in each of these