Two members of Justin Trudeau’s team got a grilling from a House of Commons committee last week, as members of all parties — including the Liberals — demanded to know why the federal government had torched its promises to improve Canada’s access-to-information system.
The system, which empowers journalists and citizens to request documents from the federal government, has slid further into disrepair in recent years, having had to bear the brunt of nine years of Stephen Harper’s secretive government and two years of Trudeau’s nearly-as-secretive one.
But Trudeau, on the campaign trail, had promised to fix it. He swore — including in a sit-down interview with me — that he would expand the Access to Information Act to encompass his cabinet and the Prime Minister’s Office, meaning journalists could obtain his own files, memos, and emails (within reason).
It was not to be.
Earlier this year, Treasury Board President Scott Brison introduced Bill C-58, a bill he insisted would “modernize” the system. The legislation, however, does not follow through on any of the promises made by Trudeau during the campaign; ignores reports from the Information Commissioner and the committee tasked with studying the system; and actually appears to make the system even worse.
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