BC NDP’s proposed freedom-of-information changes target small handful of prolific information requestors

VANCOUVER — The BC NDP government’s latest attempt to amend the province’s freedom-of-information laws appears to be directed at only a small handful of individuals in the province, according to sources within the legislature.Bill 9, the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Amendment Act, 2026, would give public bodies broader powers to delay or reject requests they consider “abusive,” malicious, repetitious, excessively broad or operationally disruptive. The legislation passed second reading after an all-night opposition filibuster that stretched into the early hours of May 8..A source inside the legislature has privately called the bill “the Mackin Bill,” in reference to veteran investigative journalist Bob Mackin of theBreaker.news — long one of British Columbia’s most prolific FOI users.BC Conservative MLA Gavin Dew mentioned Mackin by name when discussing the issue in a March sitting of the Legislative Assembly.“Pretty much anyone who follows what happens with media knows they did that in order to target one specific journalist, a fellow named Bob Mackin,” Dew said in specific reference to the veteran muckraker..A more localized illustration comes from the Okanagan community of Summerland, where a long-running neighbour dispute over a mushroom farm has spiralled into one of the clearest cases of the resource drain Bill 9’s supporters describe.The conflict began around 2019 when Brad Besler and his family objected to after-the-fact zoning approvals for buildings at the neighbouring “What the Fungus” operation on Garnet Valley Road.What started as a bylaw and Agricultural Land Commission complaint quickly escalated..The Beslers — Brad, brother Darren and mother Vicki — were convicted of criminal mischief in 2021, received probation, and then launched multiple civil suits alleging conspiracy, malicious prosecution, negligence and more against neighbours, the District of Summerland, the RCMP, Crown prosecutors and the others.Along the way, the family filed dozens of formal FOI requests to the district — at least 79 between 2019 and late 2023 alone, plus overlaps and duplicates.As of June 30, 2025, Summerland says it had spent more than $361,443.45 responding to the legal actions and information requests.That figure does not include full staff time or the district’s liability-insurer costs. For context, a one-per-cent property-tax increase in Summerland generates roughly $108,000.The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner previously authorized the district to limit the Beslers to one active request every three years, a decision the family has challenged in court.Several of their civil claims have been struck or ordered rewritten for abuse of process, but litigation continues into 2026..Government members say cases like Summerland’s and the workload created by a handful of prolific requesters justify the new tools in Bill 9.But others, like Dew, see things differently.“As I have previously mentioned, this is not the first time this government has proposed to limit transparency and bring in fees to the system,” Dew said during a March 11 debate in the legislature over proposed changes to the province's freedom-of-information laws.”“The last time they amended the FOI system they introduced $10 fees for filing, which severely reduced access to information,” Dew continued.Those concerns were validated in a recent media interview conducted with BC information and privacy commissioner Michael Harvey where Harvey said there’s been a worryingly sharp decrease in the overall number of FOI requests — a decline he says is likely related to the introduction of an application fee in 2021..Green MLA Rob Botterell, who led the team that drafted British Columbia’s original Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act in 1992, added his voice in a rare show of agreement between the Greens and Conservatives. Speaking for roughly 100 minutes in debate and supporting the Conservatives’ hoist motion during the all-night filibuster, Botterell described the FOI law as “the foundation of open, transparent and accountable democratic government” and warned that Bill 9 would turn it into “freedom from information,”Minister of Citizens’ Services Diana Gibson, the NDP sponsor of the bill, has rejected the notion Bill 9 seeks to limit access to information for citizens or journalists, describing the amendments as practical updates to handle growing request volumes and protect smaller public bodies from vexatious filers.The bill now heads to committee stage, where further amendments are possible before third reading.

BC NDP’s proposed freedom-of-information changes target small handful of prolific information requestors

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