Information & Ethics committee  I often make requests under freedom of information laws in different countries. An argument you sometimes get back from government agencies that don't want to give you information is called the mosaic effect. The argument is that the information I have asked for is innocuous, but

Information & Ethics committee  I don't have any evidence that there are subcategories, but as a journalist once said to me, the number of Canadian journalists is small to start with. When you break it down by region and specialty, it gets smaller still. When you see a request come in on some topic pertaining t

Information & Ethics committee  I'm in no position to know what ministerial aides or communications persons do with regard to actually asking for names. The point I would emphasize is to ask what legitimate purpose, pertaining to the law, is served by the routine disclosure of occupations within government.

Information & Ethics committee  I would like to make a minor note about the disclosure of occupations within PCO. In 2004 I did a little study of a request that had been sent to PCO for consultation on security grounds. After September 11, guidance was given to federal government departments that certain requ

Information & Ethics committee  I should clarify that I didn't make any statement as to whether the minister should be entitled to know the name of the requester.

Information & Ethics committee  But it is unambiguous that it is standard practice to disseminate the occupation of the requester. The underlying issue is the bureaucratic procedure that has built up over years and continues to exist, which threatens the right to equal treatment and also creates the opportuni

Information & Ethics committee  I don't have any particular answer to that question at the moment. I would be a little leery about beginning to tell ministerial staff the name of a requester.

Information & Ethics committee  I should make it clear that I have limited knowledge of the subject of the circulation of names of requesters. But if it were the practice to circulate the names of requesters, it would have a chilling effect. I also think that the clear and expansive practice of circulating the

Information & Ethics committee  I'm not able to comment on the specifics because I'm not familiar with them, but it strikes me that sort of practice, if it actually occurred, would be completely extraneous to the point of the law. It's not necessary for the administration of the access law.

Information & Ethics committee  The original intention of creating the categories and requiring departments to divide by category many years ago may have been to improve public knowledge about the understanding of the act. But since the software was designed to allow the refinement of categories, it has become

Information & Ethics committee  Sometimes transparency is a good remedy for a problem. Departments that process a large number of requests have established procedures for doing the sort of activity I describe—that is, for undertaking a risk assessment regarding a request or for undertaking consultations regardi

Information & Ethics committee  Yes. I believe it's Treasury Board policy that all departments should use a limited number of categories. I believe there are five or six categories of requester: business, media, organization, public, and maybe lawyer. The software, the computer programs used by each department,

Information & Ethics committee  I'm unable to address directly the question of the Information Commissioner's position, but I can say quite affirmatively that departments do use other categories. The difficulty may be in a question of interpretation. As I understand it, Treasury Board policy is that every dep

Information & Ethics committee  In the first study I did of the processing of requests in one department, HRDC, in 2002—putting aside other considerations, such as how complicated the request was, and so on—the extra time for a media request was 22 days and for a political party request it was 24 days. If it

Information & Ethics committee  The law does allow extensions of time in extenuating circumstances. The underlying problem here is the tension between any government's desire to coordinate its communication strategy and the predicament posed by any right-to-information law, which is that it creates the opport