Our journalists share their horror stories with access to information, to obtain information that should be public and that you have a right to know.
• Discover our approach – Governments hide things from you
Last November, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) finally sent me the response to a request made… on January 16, 2017. I was then seeking details on security incidents or potential intrusions that had occurred. at the residence of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa, Rideau Cottage.
Before the answer to this request – not the most complex of all – reached me, I had time to give birth to two beautiful children, the eldest of whom is now six years old.
Did the RCMP misplace my application so that the delay was so long? Not even, the police force told me, whose numerous shortcomings in terms of access to information were raised by the Information Commissioner in 2020.
- Listen to the interview with Jean Louis Fortin, director of the Quebecor Investigation Bureau on the microphone by Alexandre Dubé via
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“Following modernization efforts, the number of old backlogged files is decreasing day after day,” RCMP spokesperson Marie-Eve Breton told me. To date, there remain around 50 access to information requests dating from 2017 that are still active and “soon to be completed”.
Was the wait worth it, almost seven years later? No. The few email exchanges received did not result in an article.
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