The Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge is currently in federal court trying to prevent the release of records that the Information Commissioner wants to make public..According to Blacklock’s Reporter, cabinet in a 2015 Ministerial Mandate letter had promised to “ensure the Commissioner is empowered to order government information to be released.”.“Records that have not yet been produced are voluminous,” lawyers for St-Onge’s department complained in an application to a federal judge. .“They total approximately 10,500 pages. They must be reviewed.”.The records requested from someone in Vaughan, ON, which were asked for through the Access to Information Act, were about firearms and dated all the way back to 1970. These records were located at Library and Archives Canada..The files were asked for two years ago. The managers did not pay attention to the request, as mentioned in the Court documents..Another complaint led Information Commissioner Caroline Maynard to issue an order on June 21 for the information to be released. Lawyers from the Heritage department requested a judge to cancel this demand..“Library and Archives Canada requests more time,” wrote lawyers. .They did not give a specific deadline. It's common for Access to Information requests to take six to eight years to be processed.. Pascale St-Onge Block Files .During a testimony in 2021 at the Commons Government Operations committee, Maynard stated that the federal Access to Information system was “on the brink” and mostly not working as it was intended to..“It is on the brink of being unable to be fixed,” said Maynard..“COVID is just one more excuse,” said Maynard. .“The right of access, a quasi-constitutional right, cannot be suspended because of the pandemic. Government transparency is the foundation of a strong democracy and has never been more important than during this crisis.”.Maynard cited “inadequate leadership and a lack of clear guidelines on transparency and disclosure.” .The Commissioner in an earlier report Observations and Recommendations from the Information Commissioner said the system “had already entered a critical phase before the pandemic and could soon be beyond repair.”.After the Trudeau Liberals were elected in 2015, the government promised to share more information from records with the public..“We have promised Canadians a government that will bring real change,” said a November 13, 2015 Ministerial Mandate letter..“We have committed to set a higher bar for openness and transparency in government,” wrote the prime minister. .“It is time to shine more light on government to ensure it remains focused on the people it serves.”.“Government and its information should be open by default,” said the Mandate letter. .“If we want Canadians to trust their government, we need a government that trusts Canadians. It is important that we acknowledge mistakes when we make them. Canadians do not expect us to be perfect. They expect us to be honest, open and sincere.”
