A few years ago, I was in New York with my 21-year-old daughter. We visited museums, ate at great restaurants, did some shopping. During our trip, she found a pair of sandals made of embroidered Chinese fabric and fell in love with them.
But that summer, I noticed she never wore them. When I asked why, she said: “I just feel like there’s a chance I’ll offend someone.”
Four provinces and the federal government are dialling back their freedom-of-information (FOI) laws, moves that ominously mirror one another.
British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Nova Scotia and Ottawa are tightening transparency legislation, or proposing to do so, to make internal government documents harder for citizens, journalists and others to obtain.
Timelines for governments to provide responses to such requests are being extended, for example, and more records are being declared off-limits.
