Between April 27 and June 19, records obtained by the Investigative Journalism Bureau show, the government’s cabinet office refused 48 freedom-of-information requests by citing new provincial legislation that allows the premier and his cabinet to keep their office records secret. The change passed as part of omnibus legislation in April.

Freedom-of-information (FOI) legislation was originally meant as a tool the public can use to ask for specific government records, with a goal of making government more accountable and open. Federal, provincial and territorial governments each have their own versions of such laws.

Two of the refused Ontario FOI requests obtained by the IJB asked questions about the redevelopment of Ontario Place, where plans for a mega-spa have run up against opposition; two took interest in the 52-kilometre Highway 413 project northwest of Toronto; one request looked for calls Ford received about the private jet he was pressured to return.

Some of the requests were newly filed. One was from last year, and three were from 2023. (The legislated timeframe for a response to an FOI request is 30 days.) At least one, filed April 2, sought records that had already been released.

All were turned down. 

A snapshot of secrecy

The list of refused freedom-of-information requests, which the IJB obtained through an FOI request of its own, is not exhaustive and is missing refused requests that were made to other ministries besides the cabinet office. But it provides a snapshot into what information the Ford government will no longer make public. Ford’s office did not respond to a request for comment. 

At the time the legislative change came in, Ford said it was necessary to protect himself and his cabinet from “communist China,” to update what he characterized as an outdated framework and to protect the privacy of, for example, people he corresponds with. Personal information was already exempted from Ontario’s freedom-of-information regime.

Journalist and freedom-of-information expert Dean Beeby told the IJB the 48-denial tally is higher than he expected given that the legislation has only been in place for a brief time.

“The law would have put off a lot of people. People who might normally have filed (a request) would have sort of read the changes and decided not to bother,” he said. 

“It sounds like a lot to me.”

And it shows what is lost through legislation like this, he said.

“Cabinet is the pinnacle of decision-making in any government. … That’s really the core of public-service journalism and the core of understanding of why decisions are made and whether they were appropriate,” he said.

Information released through FOIs, or access-to-information requests, can mean the difference between knowing what your government is up to – and not.

Anaïs Bussières McNicoll, director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s Fundamental Freedoms program, said the IJB’s finding “confirms our our fears that these amendments will deprive people of the ability to really have a transparent government and to hold the government to account.”

Exposing wrongdoing – such as that brought to light through an investigation into Ontario’s Greenbelt – “is going to be made much more challenging because of those retrograde amendments,” she added. 

Beeby worries about similar moves in other provinces and in the federal government, which is considering recommendations to exempt some records from access beyond those already exempt from public scrutiny, potentially dooming them to destruction.

“We are seeing a kind of FOI backlash across the country.”