FEATURE ARTICLE
Investigative journalist says Canadians kept in dark by their
leaders
by Sunny Freeman
and Amanda Stutt
March 5, 2008
Award-winning Toronto Star investigative journalist
Rob Cribb called on the Canadian public to demand greater government
transparency at a lecture at UBC’s Robson Square campus
last week.
“The public must demand greater openness and transparency
from public officials,” he said. “Without this,
we remain in the dark.”
Cribb, who is also the Canwest visiting professor at the UBC
School of Journalism, is responsible for groundbreaking investigative
reports that pry open the bureaucratic vault of secrecy on key
public safety issues – exposing problems with daycare,
airline maintenance and restaurant regulations.
While journalists act on behalf of the public as a watchdog
on government, Cribb argued that a culture of secrecy and silence
at all levels of government has frustrated journalists’
attempts to find out the truth.
Information laws at both the federal and provincial levels establish
the rights to public access to government-held documents, a
30-day deadline for response and an appeal procedure if access
is denied and also detail limits to these rights.
But public records that should be easily attainable through
freedom of information legislation are kept hidden through destroying
records, delays and flat denials.
Even when a request is granted, Cribb said, bureaucrats assign
exorbitant fees for accessing information. In one case Cribb
relayed, the government told him it would cost $1200 to transfer
data onto a disc.
Academic research, including one published by the Campaign
for Open Government, shows that Canadian institutions are
taking longer to process requests and are less likely to release
information.
A black hole of information results when public bodies are not
adequately covered by access to information legislation.
Some governmental bodies that are not held accountable to the
public, because they are exempt from access legislation, include
Airport Authorities, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board,
The Nuclear Waste Management Organization, The Canadian Millennium
Scholarship Foundation, Foundation Genome Canada, Canadian Blood
Services, NAV Canada, and others.
Cribb also reported that “more than half” of requests
for court record documents are routinely denied. The greatest
indictments against the public interest are committed through
these information black holes.
When information is uncovered, it can have enormous public interest.
Through his digging, Cribb found that the College of Physicians
was dealing with 99 per cent of patient complaints and reports
of malpractice in secret, and doctors with complaints filed
against them were often given light reprimands, in private,
with no transparency.
He said there are also “attempts to silence whistleblowers”,
and “economic pressures to avoid delays overruling safety
issues” that much of the public may be unaware of.
Cribb said that former Alberta Premier Ralph Klein had denied
journalists access to public records, a “strategic way
of undermining the public interest”, and that Stephen
Harper’s staff attempt to manage news conferences by “picking
which journalists get to ask questions.”
“We are dealing with the most hostile government in recent
history,” he said of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s
relationship with the Ottawa press corps.”
The chill on communication is achieved through gag orders on
Ministers. Requests to speak to the media must be approved by
the Prime Minister’s Office and information on “sensitive
issues” must be approved by the PMO, which adds to the
backlog of access to information requests.
In addition, requests from journalists are often flagged and
automatically deemed sensitive, restricting debates surrounding
important information from entering the public sphere.
Cribb is frustrated that this culture of secrecy is a “sleeper
issue in Canadian society”.
He said journalists, acting on behalf of the public, are “dealing
with...antiquated legislation and [a] cultural problem. The
only way things change is through public pressure...but [it’s]
rarely on the public agenda”, he said.
Cribb called for amendments to Freedom of Information legislation,
judicial appreciation for journalists’ relationships with
confidential sources, and adequate whistleblower protection.
