By Anna Mehler Paperny – Investigative Journalism Bureau
One of the best ways to lose friends at a party is to bring up freedom-of-information legislation.
Access to Information
Feds eliminate extra access-to-info fees
May 5, 2016 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
Canadians will no longer be asked to pay thousands of dollars to access public information from the federal government.
Liberals pledge to implement all access-to-info promises ‘as quickly as possible’
April 28, 2016 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
The federal Liberals say they’ll bring in all the access-to-information promises in their election campaign as soon as possible — some as early as this winter.
Canada’s info watchdog is getting less money than she was under the Tories
April 28, 2016 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
The Liberals plan to strengthen “as early as this year” the watchdog responsible for keeping government transparent and making public information public — but they’ve given her office less money than she’s gotten since 2009.
What the feds don’t want you to see in their Saudi human rights report
April 15, 2016 – Anna Mehler Paperny and Tania Kohut, Global News
Months after Global News and several other media organizations requested it under access-to-information legislation, Global Affairs Canada released its 2015 human rights report on Saudi Arabia.
But the department redacted everything in the report related to potentially contentious human rights issues.
Expounding on C-51 and Access to Information (or lack thereof)
I got to talk to Mount Royal University student Matt Sutton about our efforts to get info about federal anti-terror bill C-51, and what happens when you don’t even know the reasons behind specific redactions.
Trudeau wins; here’s what he promised and what he’ll face as prime minister
October 19, 2015 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
The polls hadn’t even closed across Canada when news organizations called a Liberal government – and, within an hour, a Liberal majority.
Terror documents so secret, feds can’t tell you why they’re secret
October 16, 2015 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
Thousands of pages of correspondence and briefing notes on the federal government’s anti-terror Bill C-51 are so secret the government won’t disclose its reasons for censoring them.
So, you want to file an access-to-information request
Duty to document: What you need to know about reforming access-to-information in Canada
March 31, 2015 – Amy Minsky and Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
Many of Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault’s recommendations to fix Canada’s strained and aging access-to-information system will be familiar to Prime Minister Stephen Harper: They were part of his platform nine years ago.
a business of misfits 