Trudeau Says Canadian Gov't. Seeks to Restore Confidence in Right to Information Regime

TORONTO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th November, 2020) The Canadian government intends to act on recommendations made by the country's Information Commissioner that will fix a faltering right to information regime within the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, Information Commissioner Caroline Maynard released a report in which she blasted the RCMP for consistently failing to process access to information requests in a timely manner and undermining the Office of the Information Commissioner's investigations.

"We're going to look very closely at those recommendations and move forward on the ones that will restore Canadians' confidence in our access to information regime and the work that our institutions do to respond to it," Trudeau said.

In her report, Maynard said that both, the RCMP Commissioner and Public Safety Minister Bill Blair, who oversees the agency, "appear to accept the status quo and are only prepared to commit to minimal improvements without a clear plan of action or timelines.

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Recommendations to deal with prolonged response times, include new technology, increased staffing and funding as well as more training for workers.

Trudeau added that it is imperative for Canadians to have faith in institutions as important as Canada's Federal police agency.

The Canadian government and federal agencies have been under fire for a timid response to access to information requests, with Treasury board President Jean-Yves Duclos acknowledging the problem earlier this summer and saying that the government needs to improve its response to formal information requests from the public.