The federal Conservative government is now providing punch lines for jokes about how 'transparent' they are.

Q. How much money does a federal employee have to pull in before the government makes it public?

A. About half a million dollars.

Too bad no one's laughing.

In a stunning move...

With the provincial election finally over, a new majority in the legislature, and a new mandate for Premier Christy Clark, it's time to take a look at the prospects for improving information rights in this province.

There have been more than a few problems on the freedom of information...

To this point in the provincial election campaign, the leaders of the four major parties have been quite reticent to reveal where they stand on some of the burning issues in the field of information rights.

That's why, as we mentioned in our last post, the B.C. Freedom of...

The provincial election campaign is well underway and all the major parties have released their platforms. But unfortunately for those of us concerned about information and privacy rights, the pickings are awfully slim.

Information issues were smoking hot right up to the drop of the writ. But ever since,...

A few short days from now, the writ will drop on the 2013 provincial election, kicking off twenty-eight days of heated campaigning. And while there's no shortage of issues for voters to consider, recent controversies around government secrecy and attempts to undermine Freedom of Information make it clear that information...

Information issues are going to be big in the coming provincial election campaign. In the past few months alone, we've seen controversy erupt over disappearing (or non-existent) government records, the use of private emails by public officials to avoid freedom of information requests, the rollout of problem-plagued IT systems, and...

In my last post, which looked at Tony Clement's not-so-open "Open Government" initiatives, I mentioned that the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association (FIPA) had recently received leaked documents detailing a new federal government plan to make government websites a whole lot less informative.

Since being tipped...

Treasury Board President Tony Clement is the federal government's Mr. Open Government. These days, he spends a lot of time boasting about the wonders of open data, and what exciting new data sets are being made available by his government.

For example, when originally announced in March 2011, the government's...

Later today, the B.C. government will set out its legislative program for what remains of this legislature in the throne speech. Without question, that program should include a commitment to fix the gag on free political speech built into our province's Election Act.

Under the current act, any communication with...

At first glance, it looks like the Victoria Police Department might be slowly coming to its senses.

Late last year, Vic PD turned up its nose at a report issued by the Information and Privacy Commissioner, which stated that the force's Automatic Licence Plate Recognition (ALPR) system

In B.C. and across Canada, the past 12 months have seen information rights make headlines on a regular basis. And usually not in a good way.

At the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association, much of our year was spent (once again) in sparring matches with the...

Courtesy of Canada's Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault, we've all received an early Christmas gift — an important opportunity to have our voices heard on the issue of our ever-dwindling access to information rights.

Since September, Legault has been running a broad public consultation, seeking out suggestions for how to...

In a report released last week, B.C.'s Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham took a stiff shot at the use of Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) technology by the Victoria Police Department. Valuable as Denham's efforts are, however, it will likely take more than just her...

Despite the disastrous launch of the Integrated Case Management System earlier this year, the B.C. government is poised to unveil its next multimillion-dollar, can't-fail IT project: an ID card for everyone in the province.

But these days, this would-be jewel of the Government 2.0 project is starting to...

The B.C. government sure does love secrecy for its educational institutions -- or at least their subsidiary companies.

It has now been a year since former Open Government Minister Margaret MacDiarmid told the B.C. Legislature (remember when we still had fall sittings?) that she was looking forward to...

This has to be one of the strangest election stories in recent times.

It all started with the B.C. government's 2008 attempt to expand the reach of its gag law restricting third party political advertising beyond the election period. That plan was promptly shot down by the courts.

Undeterred, the...

If you've ever had a bad first day on the job, you've got to feel for B.C.'s new health minister, Margaret MacDiarmid.

On Sept. 6, no sooner had Minister MacDiarmid been sworn into her new post than she was rushed into a press conference to announce that...

When the 2012 federal budget was tabled in March, it confirmed what many had suspected for months: there would be a whole lot of cutting going on. Among those on the chopping block was Library and Archives Canada (LAC).

As "a source of enduring knowledge," LAC is charged with...

Last time we posted in this esteemed spot, we told you that almost a quarter of all general freedom of information (FOI) requests submitted in B.C. over the past year were returned with "No Responsive Records."

We also promised to return with even more interesting details regarding...

If there's one thing government bureaucracies are known for, it's keeping records. Meticulous, exhaustive records, made up of invoices, notifications, invitations, memos and forms in triplicate fill government warehouses around the world, including here in B.C.

Throw in new digital record-keeping and database technologies that automatically capture and log vast...