Legislative change needed on access to information, but ‘overheated rhetoric’ doesn’t help, says Wernick

Canada has a ‘blackout bureaucracy,’ says journalism professor Sean Holman, who debated the former Privy Council clerk this week on the role of access to information in Canada’s democracy.

Canada needs ‘to have a little less overheated rhetoric about the state of our democracy or the state of the law and more precision and focus about what specifically needs to be changed,’ says Michael Wernick, the former clerk of the Privy Council, who gave his thoughts on reforming the access-to-information system during a Sept. 14 debate. The Hill Times file photo

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BY ZAINAB AL-MEHDAR

September 16, 2021

Canada’s record management systems are “underfunded and shambolic,” and new access-to-information legislation is needed to prevent “backsliding” by future governments on proactive disclosure, says the country's former top bureaucrat. Speaking during a Sept....

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