Ask and it shan't be given you
The Department of Justice has a handy-dandy tip for anyone seeking provincial government information. They helpfully suggest:
The ATIPPA is not meant to replace existing means of obtaining information. Before you make a request using the legislation, you may wish to try other, informal means to obtain the records you are seeking. Contact the public body (Access and Privacy Coordinators) which you believe has the records. Often, you can get the information you want in this informal way, without using the legislation. This route will often be faster for you and less expensive for public bodies to administer.That's the theory. The unintentionally hilarious theory.
The practice? A certain unduly pessimistic Quebec daily newspaper described it earlier in the week:
An ordinary citizen got in touch with one of the contacts listed in a press release about Premier Danny Williams' trip to California this week to attend the Governor's Global Climate Summit 2 with two simple questions: who else is going with the premier, and what was the trip expected to cost?A friendly tip to the ordinary citizen: it helps if, in formulating your Access request, you avoid asking for anything, or asking in any terms, which might be considered by the Office of the Real Information and Privacy Commissioner to be "ludicrous", "frivolous", or "ridiculous".
The response from the premier's office? You'll have to file an access to information request.
Labels: AccountabiliBuddy
posted by WJM @ 12:04 PM
1 Comments:
Not so very long ago, I asked for an electronic copy of one of the CRA quarterly polls.
I sent the request to the person in charge of the section who had it.
I figured it as a simple request since the thing couldn't be withheld and there'd be nothing ot redact.
My e-mail was sent to the Secrecy Co-ordinator who, as it turned out, was the same one who popped up at the Cameron Inquiry displaying her august knowedlege of how to keep things secret that were already public. Like a judg'es name already mentioned in the news report summarised in the briefing note she blacked out.
She told me I needed to send a form in along with the appropriate fee.
I questioned this.
She repeated it.
I cited the same guidance you just did. I also noted I would like it electroncially since they had it that way, it obviously didn't need to be redacted (to wit previous decisions) and the whole thing would take like five minutes.
She provided a great deal of pro forma bafflegab but at no point gave any indication she was intterested in actually making life simple in complying with the spirit of the law.
The same person got a new job afterwards, I think, in charge of keeping information from the public while working out of the department of justice.
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