Glenn,
Interesting editorial about the lack of transparency coming from federal health agencies. It's worth considering how freedom of information legislation and open government might be united. Consider the example of Health care in Ontario.
The purpose of Ontario's foi legislation is "to provide a right of access to information under the control of institutions." 1(a). But hospitals have long stood beyond its scope.
In BC, hospitals are within FOI. Some serious problems have been revealed. BC journalist Derek Spalding was recently "recognized for his reporting on the spread of Clostridium difficile at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital over a two-year period, starting in 2008. He wrote a series of articles during the past two years about how the Vancouver Island Health Authority mishandled information regarding the 11-month outbreak at NRGH. Repeated freedom of information requests finally revealed that the health authority intentionally withheld information in order to downplay the negative message to the public." [1]
But there is good news for Ontario. On December 8, 2010 the Broader Public Sector Accountability Act, received Royal Assent amending the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) to designate hospitals as institutions within its scope.
Interestingly, Ontario's FOI law has a section 24(3) "Request for continuing access to record" which states "The applicant may indicate in the request that it shall, if granted, continue to have effect for a specified period of up to two years".
Returning to the federal level, Canada's Access to Information Act requires documents to be released in the format specified by the user (section 4.(2.1)). If the Act was amended to include a "continual access" clause, then (to use an Internet metaphor) this would allow ATI "clients" to establish FOI "connections" for "streaming" health records for a period of two years from Federal Health Care "servers."
Mark Weiler
[1]
http://www2.canada.com/nanaimodailynews/news/story.html?id=10c382d5-e326-454b-8070-5e318cfcd3b4-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2011 08:58:29 -0400
From: Glen Newton <
[hidden email]>
To: GOSLING members in Ottawa
<
[hidden email]>, civicaccess discuss
<
[hidden email]>
Subject: [CivicAccess-discuss] CMAJ Editorial: Will Open Government
make Canada's health agencies more transparent?
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/rapidpdf/cmaj.110411v1http://dx.doi.org/cmaj.110411v1-cmaj.110411Will Open Government make Canada's health agencies more transparent?
Canadian Medical Association Journal
H?bert et al. CMAJ.2011; 0: cmaj.110411v1-cmaj.110411
"On Mar. 18, 2011, the Harper government
announced its ?Open Government? strategy....
...The opacity and culture of secrecy of some of
Canada?s federal health agencies must be
addressed....
...If Open Government is to be implemented
effectively in the health sector, it must be led
from the top. However, despite earlier election
promises, the Harper government has proven to
be the antithesis of open....
...But secrecy and lack of public involvement
undermine accountability and the credibility of
public institutions and their decisions. They diminish
public trust and feed conspiracy theories. Failure
to truly implement Open Government risks
being perceived as little more than marketing by
the Harper Government."
-Glen
http://zzzoot.blogspot.com/
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