Right to Know
Right to Know Week - 2010
The fifth annual Right to Know Week in Canada – sponsored by provincial Information and Privacy Commissioners and the federal Information Commissioner – starts Sunday, September 26, 2010.
Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner, Dr. Ann Cavoukian, has a number of special events planned to help focus attention on the public's right to access government-held information.
Right to Know Week is timed to coincide with the international Right to Know Day, September 28. On that day in 2002, freedom of information organizations from more than a dozen countries met in Sofia, Bulgaria, and agreed to collaborate in the promotion of individual right of access to information and open, transparent government.
Among the special events planned by Commissioner Cavoukian are:
- A luncheon panel in Toronto September 28 that will outline how the Commissioner’s Access by Design program, based on proactive disclosure by government organizations, benefits both the public and government. Panelists from both the provincial and local government sectors will provide success stories. (You can order tickets online to the luncheon (Positive Disclosure Breeds Efficient Government) through the IPC’s co-sponsor for this event, the Toronto chapter of IPAC, http://www.ipac.ca/Toronto/CurrentEvents.)
- A live online chat, with Commissioner Cavoukian and Assistant Commissioner (Access) Brian Beamish on Wednesday, Sept. 29. The Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner will be online from 11 a.m. to noon (at www.righttoknow.ca), where they will answer general questions about access to government information and how Access by Design could improve the current process.
- The unveiling of the IPC’s expanded Access by Design section of its website.
- IPC staff will be setting up information tables at major malls in three cities (Toronto, Hamilton and Oshawa) to hand out IPC publications and answer questions about freedom of information and Access by Design. Location and other details about the information tables will be released in September, once arrangements are finalized.
- Other activities during Right to Know Week include the first of three upcoming presentations by the IPC’s communications co-ordinator to media students at colleges and universities on how reporters can use FOI as an investigative tool.
Among special events leading up to Right to Know Week, Assistant Commissioner Beamish is a member of a panel at the Canadian Bar Association's Privacy and Access Rights in the Age of Technology: The State of Canadians’ Information Rights in 2010 and Beyond, a conference being held Sep. 19 and 20, 2010, in Ottawa. His panel will be discussing: Liberating Information, Shifting from Reactive Disclosure to Open Government. The panel moderator is Allison Knight, legal counsel at the IPC. (http://www.cba.org/pd/details.aspx?id=NA_PRV10)
Your Rights under Ontario’s Freedom of Information Laws
Ontario’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA), which came into effect on January 1, 1988, established an Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) as an officer of the Legislature. The Commissioner is appointed by and reports to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario and is independent of the government of the day.
FIPPA applies to all provincial ministries and most provincial agencies, boards and commissions, as well as to universities and colleges of applied arts and technology.
The Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA), which came into effect January 1, 1991, broadened the number of public institutions covered by Ontario’s freedom of information and privacy legislation. It covers local government organizations, such as municipalities, police, library, health and school boards, and transit commissions.
The term freedom of information (FOI) refers to public access to general records relating to the activities of government – ranging from administration and operations to legislation and policy – and access to records of your own personal information that government offices may hold. Being able to access this information is an important aspect of open and accountable government. (Privacy protection is the other side of that equation, and refers to the safeguarding of personal information held by government.)
The Acts provide that, subject to limited and specific exemptions, information under the control of provincial and municipal government organizations should be available to the public.
There were 37,090 FOI requests filed across Ontario in 2009 – the third highest total ever.
If you make a written freedom of information request under one of the Acts to a provincial or municipal government organization and are not satisfied with the response, you have a right to appeal that decision to the IPC. There were an even 1,000 appeals filed with the IPC in 2009.
Appeals concerning either general or personal information records may relate to a refusal by a government organization to provide access, the fees the organization wants to charge, the fact that the organization did not respond within the prescribed 30-day period, or other procedural aspects relating to an FOI request.
When an appeal is received, the IPC first attempts to settle it informally. If all issues cannot be resolved, the IPC may conduct an inquiry and issue a binding order, which may require the government organization to release all or part of the requested information.
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