Information & Ethics committee  Again, with indigenous people, it's very specific. There are certain rights of access they have. We've been to the Federal Court of Appeal on some of this, and it has pronounced on it. It has been very specific that there's a right of access and that the crown has a duty to discl

Information & Ethics committee  What my colleague said is true: you expect that for some things, you're not going to get what you asked for. One of the concerns is the gratuitous use of exemptions. Advice and recommendations are so broad you could drive a truck through them, and officials do, quite often. We'

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, absolutely, and we tried to outline those in our briefs, the one in June 2016 as well as the one that we did this October. There are some very specific issues related to the nature and scope of the right that indigenous peoples have to government data that relates to them:

Information & Ethics committee  It's an interesting question. If you think of an individual in a community who might not have a lot of experience with the bureaucracy or the legislation, they're going to start off by making a very general, vague request. Again, to me, sir, that's where it gets back to the behav

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, if you look at all of the work we do across the country.

Information & Ethics committee  I think that certainly in terms of land claims, treaty claims, and those kinds of grievances and disputes, it's difficult to resolve them unless you have the evidence.

Information & Ethics committee  I think sometimes it may be the design of government. Other times it may simply be officials who have a big stack of things on their desks. They don't have training. They don't have inclination. They don't care. They say, “Oh, I have a way I can get out of this and clear my desk.

Information & Ethics committee  I think there is a distinction to be made there. It could be made, perhaps, but who gets to define that? If it's done through consultation, there may be a way to address that idea. Part of the problem is that a lot of these claims relate to government policy and decision-making o

Information & Ethics committee  That's an interesting question. We're still thinking about it. I think it took everybody by surprise. I must say that over the past 10 to 15 years of access to information, the indigenous affairs department has gotten worse and worse. It hasn't gotten better under this government

Information & Ethics committee  Sir, it's a bit of both. Library and Archives Canada has been working on a digitization program, but they have a lot of records to go through. You're talking about miles of shelves of documents. At INAC, it's the same thing; they're talking about digitizing. One of the concerns a

Information & Ethics committee  In our brief we mentioned that we've only really had a chance to look at the bill recently. We haven't had the time we need to really give it a thorough review. Clause 6 is the one that jumps out most. Already, when we make requests for specific subject matter and state the type

Information & Ethics committee  Theoretically it's possible, sir, but again I'm just wondering why this stuff needs to be in there. Our biggest issue right now is behavioural. It's the behaviour of officials in the way they deal with requests. I don't see anything in the bill that really speaks to the issue o

Information & Ethics committee  It is probably appropriate to update it for a digital environment, but what we're talking about in that section of our presentation is a bit different. If you go to Library and Archives Canada, which is the repository of records that have been transferred from federal departments

Information & Ethics committee  They don't tell you. Those are all issues that need to be worked out.

Information & Ethics committee  We recommend that the bill be tabled and go back to the drawing board. We support the Information Commissioner's recommendations and we think this government needs to take another run at it and give proper consideration to first nations' rights to access and reflect those in any