Die-hard users of Canada’s forlorn version of the freedom of information act, the Access to Information and Privacy Act, will find this a familiar and dreary tale. This little story is not for them, but for other readers who might be curious about the Access system, which was designed, back in the early 1980s, to be one of the pillars of Government accountability and a citizen’s gateway to the collective history of policy making in Canada. Instead it is Dante-esque (just in case you didn't immediately recognize the quote from Dante’s Divine Comedy).
So here is the little story. In early 2023, I made an ATIP request to the Department of Justice for a year’s worth of the records of a little-known committee called the “Coordination and Operations Committee” (or PCOC, but not like the colourful, if grounded, bird).
Goodness, why this committee? Well, it operates as a steering committee of the War crimes program that is spearheaded by the Department of Justice alongside partners from the RCMP, CBSA (Canada Border Services Agency) and IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada). I was interested in this obscure steering committee for its oversight function for war crimes investigations drawing on information volunteered by Ukrainians who arrived in Canada in flight from the devastation of the war. The launch of the program was announced on April 7, 2022. Nothing is known of its work since that time, apart from a story published by the Globe and Mail’s Colin Freeze on April 26, 2022, shortly after the program’s public unveiling:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-russia-ukraine-war-crimes-rcmp-investigation/
I wanted to try to find out something about how the war crimes investigation was proceeding, as it amounted to a potentially important Canadian contribution to holding Russia to account.
Three months after filing my request, I received a carefully filleted collection of 30 pages. E-mail exchanges between officials were completely redacted, though I was intrigued by one that began “HAHA”…rest of text deleted . I am glad folks are having fun with war crimes.
Delays are par for the course in the ‘Non Access to Information Act’ regime; redactions to reduce records to a state of meaningless drivel, covered by multiple references to the many, many exemptions of the Access to Information Act, are also to be expected. Though I was surprised to see use of an Access exemption relating to section 16(2)c [methods employed to protect buildings, structures or systems] What?
In the usual fashion, Access release packages are served up as if extracted from a data base where AI, or any intelligence whatsoever, is missing. In plain vanilla, it is seemingly beyond access officers to put retrieved records in any kind of chronological order. You just get a dump—figure it out, chump. Its the equivalent of a government bureaucrat giving you the middle finger.
As you can see, I am warming up as I go. But the worst thing that can befall an access user is that said bureaucrats can’t even be bothered to give you all the heavily redacted records. They just leave it to you to figure out what was missing and see if you have the energy for a return trip to the gates.
In the case of my particular request, it was missing records for monthly meetings of PCOC for May, June, September and November 2022 (probably about half of the available meeting documents). It appears that the holidays months of July and August were skipped by officials, as was the shopping month of December. Records for early 2023—(my request ran to February) de nada.
I have gone back to ask for more blank pages. It’s what happens when you descend. You always look back.
I guess what you need is a leaker: someone who believes that what the organization does is valuable and that its work is being stiffled by incompetence or inattention or political indifference. Or worse.