Major Authors before 2007-08: Roberts, Alasdair; Forthcoming: a. Monaghan, Jeffrey and Yavar Hameed (2012 Spring).

. Accessing Dirty Data: Methodological Strategies for Social Problems Researchers, in Brokering Access: Politics, Power and Freedom of Information in Canada. Larsen, Mike and Kevin Walby (eds.): Forthcoming, UBC Press.

[LAW REVIEW/LEGAL STUDIES] 1. Walby, K. & Larsen, M. 2012, "Access to Information and Freedom of Information Requests: Neglected Means of Data Production in the Social Sciences", Qualitative Inquiry, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 31-42. Access to information (ATI) and freedom of information (FOI) mechanisms are now relevant features of governments in many liberal democracies today. Citizens, organizations, and permanent residents in several countries across the globe can request unpublished information from federal, provincial, state, county, and municipal government agencies. However, most qualitative researchers appear to be unfamiliar with ATI/FOI or write it off as an approach used by journalists rather than as a way to systematically produce qualitative and longitudinal data about government practices. In this article, the authors discuss the use of ATI/FOI requests as a means of data production. The authors show how the use of ATI/FOI requests intersects with issues such as reflexivity, the Hawthorne effect, interviewing, and discourse analysis. The study objective is to foster a multidisciplinary discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of ATI/FOI requests as a data production tool. Elizabeth F. Judge and Saleh Al-Sharieh. (2012) Join the Club: The Implications of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement's Enforcement Measures for Canadian Copyright Law. Alberta Law Review 49:3, pp. 677-743. The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is the most recent international agreement by which Canada and other countries have sought to strengthen the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights. While it was originally feared that ACTA would impose obligations that are in tension with the principles of Canadian copyright law, the final outcome of the ACTA negotiations moderated or removed many of the most controversial provisions in the agreement and thus has alleviated many of the concerns about the impact of ACTA on Canadian copyright law. Canada has taken the first steps toward satisfying ACTA's copyright obligations with Bill C-11, the Copyright Modernization Act, which addresses some of the agreement's digital copyright measures. Some legislative change still remains before Canada will have fully met ACTA's copyright obligations, in particular to enhance the powers of customs and border authorities to enforce intellectual property rights. This article discusses ACTA's evolution, negotiations, final text, and the extent of its rights-holder orientation. It then details the differences between ACTA's provisions and the current Canadian Copyright Act, as amended by the Copyright Modernization Act, identifies which obligations in ACTA require further amendment, and suggests how these obligations may best be implemented to reflect important values and principles underlying Canadian copyright law. Jacobs, Laverne. (2011). Building on the Ombudsman: Polyjuralism and the Impact of Dispute Resolution in the Canadian Access to Information Context. The 1st Global Conference on Transparency Research (Rutgers, May 19-20, 2011). Outside of the context of hearing processes, polyjural approaches to dispute resolution are also found in broader policy-oriented administrative regimes.1 Legislative officers designed to oversee the executive present one such context. This paper examines the dispute resolution models used by legislative and parliamentary officers to resolve access to information (ATI) complaints in Canada. Since the inception of freedom of information (FOI) legislation at the federal level of government in 1983, a debate has ensued as to whether an investigatory or adjudicative approach is most suitable for resolving access disputes. One sees that as recently as 2009 when reforms to the federal Access to Information Act2 were considered by the responsible standing committee of Parliament, this debate has continually resurfaced. This paper examines the debate by considering both the theoretical nature of the processes proposed and the concrete goals that an access to information complaint resolution regime should seek to further. 3. 2.

Forthcoming in a book: Laverne Jacobs and Sasha Baglay eds., The Nature of Inquisitorial Processes in Administrative Regimes: Global Perspectives (University of Toronto Press, 2012). -----------------------------------------------------Canadian Journal of Law and Society: Special Issue 5. Mopas, Michael, and Sarah Turnbull. (2011) Negotiating a Way In: A Special Collection of Essays on Accessing Information and Socio-legal Research. 26.3 Canadian Journal of Law and Society, pp. 585-90. 6. Brenner, Samuel. (2011) WikiLeaks Documents Explosive: The Potentially Perverse Effects of Scholars Being Forced to Look to Third Parties Rather Than State Institutions for Classified Material. 26:3 Canadian Journal of Law and Society, pp. 591-598. 7. Goodman, Philip. (2011) From Observation Dude to An Observational Study: Gaining Access and Conducting Research Inside a Paramilitary Organization. 26:3 Canadian Journal of Law and Society, pp. 599-605. Spivakovsky, Claire. (2011) The Need for Flexible and Adaptive Research in an Environment of Diverse Barriers to Accessing Data. 26:3 Canadian Journal of Law and Society, pp. 607-612. Kazmierski, V. (2011) Accessing Democracy: The Critical Relationship between Academics and the Access to Information Act 26:3 Canadian Journal of Law and Society, pp. 613-622.

4.

8.

9.

10. Walby, Kevin, and Mike Larsen. (2011) Getting at the Live Archive: On Access to Information Research in Canada. 26:3 Canadian Journal of Law and Society, pp. 623-33. 11. Piche, Justin. (2011) Going Public: Accessing Data, Contesting Information Blockades. 26:3 Canadian Journal of Law and Society, pp. 635-43. 12. Rigakos, George and Stephen Worth. (2011) Access to Information (ATI) as a Double-Edged Sword for Critical Policing Research 26:3 Canadian Journal of Law and Society, pp. 645-52. 13. Millar, Paul, and Akwasi Owusu-Bempah. (2011) Whitewashing Criminal Justice in Canada: Preventing Research through Data Suppression. 26:3 Canadian Journal of Law and Society, pp. 653-61. --------------------------------------14. Pope, Courtney. (2011). Underneath the Golden Boy Bill 219: An Insurmountable Goal. Manitoba Law Journal 34:3, pp. 35-53. This paper will argue that Bill 219 is necessary in order to effectively protect the privacy rights of all Manitobans, and the reluctance of the government to give adequate attention to the bill is a failure on their part to put forward the best interests of Manitobans. The first part of this paper will outline the main features of the bill and will discuss how private members' bills are typically treated. Part Two will examine the role of PIPEDA and the concept of substantially similar provincial legislation. Part Three will analyze the main arguments advanced for and against the bill, as expressed in Hansard and in the context of the bill's legislative history. Theories regarding the major impediments to its passing will also be advanced. Fundamentally, the questions to be asked throughout the analysis are: why is this bill being ignored by the government, and will persistence finally pay off? 15. Kaushal, A. & Dauvergne, C. 2011, "The Growing Culture of Exclusion: Trends in Canadian Refugee Exclusions", International Journal of Refugee Law, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 54-92. This article tracks trends in the use of the Refugee Convention's exclusion provisions in Canada from 1998 to 2008. Every publically available exclusion case during this time was gathered & this considerable body of jurisprudence was supplemented with data obtained using Access to Information laws. The data was analyzed to track the use of exclusion measures, the types of exclusion measures most often used, & the responsiveness of the refugee tribunal to the government's arguments in favour of exclusion (in other words, the government's success rate). In addition to this quantitative analysis, a qualitative assessment was made of how allegations of terrorism & exclusion are related. In this analysis, the focus was on judicial reasoning & on how the meaning of 'terrorism' within Canadian refugee law has expanded during this time frame. The article concludes that post-2001 security

politics have influenced both the rate of exclusions & the judicial discourse surrounding terrorism. Following on from this conclusion, the article considers how both 'morality' & 'sovereignty' are redefined within Canadian refugee law. 16. Scassa, T., Jennifer A. Chandler and Elizabeth F. Judge. (2011). Privacy by the Wayside: The New Information Superhighway, Data Privacy, and the Deployment of Intelligent Transportation Systems. Saskatchewan Law Review 74, pp. 117-64. In this article, we discuss the data protection and privacy issues raised by the use of ITS in Canada. Privacy with respect to ITS implicates informational privacy (in other words, privacy interests that individuals have in their personal information), as well as privacy in public spaces (privacy interests individuals have in their location and 7 other aspects of themselves that are revealed by the mere fact of being visible in public). We begin with an overview identifying the central privacy issues that arise with ITS. We then provide an introduction to the legal and institutional privacy framework in Canada. This is followed by a closer analysis of Canada's data protection regimes and their application to ITS. We conclude that, while ITS may offer significant benefits for safety, security, and environmental sustainability, it also raises considerable informational privacy risks. However, these information privacy risks can be moderated by ensuring that the design and deployment of ITS from the outset not only complies with existing data protection obligations respecting the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information, set out in Canadian statutes but also anticipates and addresses user concerns about privacy risks. 17. Eltis, Karen. (2011). The Judicial System in the Digital Age: Revisiting the Relationship between Privacy and Accessibility in the Cyber Context. McGill Law Journal 56(2), pp.289-316. Despite technology's reach into all parts of social life, its effects on the judiciary have been under-theorized. The "Digital Age", and unfettered usage and access to digital information, will have untold effects on core values of judicial independence, impartiality and the delicate balance between privacy and the "open court" principle. Technology -- as well as the dramatically increased availability of information of all kinds and quality -- is distorting the judicial process and its outcomes. It is of primary importance, therefore, to identify the broad issues that emerge from the growing use of technology, and to provide a theoretical basis for adjudicating the ongoing tension between privacy and transparency in the judicial setting. Too often the judiciary pits privacy against the "open court" principle and accepts a culturally narrow view of what constitutes privacy and how it affects the judicial process. In particular, this article investigates the effects of online court documents to establish why, despite the current preference for openness and transparency, a contextualized understanding of privacy is desirable. Indeed, if we rethink privacy within the cyber context, it can be considered an ally of openness in the court system. 18. Rehaag, Sean. (2011). The Role of Counsel in Canada's Refugee Determination System: An Empirical Assessment. Osgoode Hall Law Journal 49, pp. 71-116. This article examines the role of counsel in Canada's refugee determination process through an investigation of over 70,000 refugee decisions from 2005 to 2009. The article demonstrates that counsel is a key factor driving successful outcomes. The article also shows that legal aid programs are increasingly restrictive in funding legal representation for refugee claimants. The author argues that these restrictions put the lives of refugees at risk. The article also demonstrates that claimants represented by immigration consultants are less likely to succeed than claimants represented by lawyers. This, combined with evidence that the immigration consulting industry has not established adequate procedures to enforce standards of professional conduct, leads the author to argue that immigration consultants should not provide unsupervised representation to refugee claimants. In short, the author argues that counsel play an important role in the refugee determination process. Accordingly, measures should be taken to ensure that refugee claimants can access competent counsel while simultaneously ensuring that unqualified counsel do not play a role in life and death refugee decision making. 19. Guttman, Daniel. (2010). Criminal Lawyers Assn. v. Ontario: A Limited Right to Government Information under Section 2(b) of the Charter. 51 Supreme Court Law Review, pp. 199-231. Before the development of access to information legislation, government information was not generally available to the public. While the emergence of access to information legislation in Canadian jurisdictions reflected important public policy decisions that providing access to information promotes good government, the courts had

always recognized that there was no constitutional right to require the government to disclose information in its possession. In Criminal Lawyers Assn. v. Ontario (Ministry of Public Safety and Security) the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously reached the novel conclusion that the right to freedom of information protected by section 2(b) of the Charter contained, in limited circumstances, a derivative right to government information. The new right to government information recognized by the Court is an extremely narrow right, limited to situations where access is necessary to permit meaningful discussion on a matter of public importance, subject to privileges and functional constraints. This article discusses the content of the new limited right to government information and its implications. 20. Kazmierski, V. (2010) Draconian But Not Despotic: The Unwritten Limits of Parliamentary Sovereignty in Canada 41 Ottawa Law Review, pp. 245-286. 21. Gilliland, Ryder. (2010). Supreme Court Recognizes (a Derivative) Right to Access Information. 51 Supreme Court Law Review. (2d), pp. 233-43. The view developed in this paper is that having established a toe hold in Canadian law, the scope of the right of access will necessarily expand over time. This is so for two principal reasons. First, the freedom expression right from which the right of access derives has always been very broadly construed. A narrow construction of the words necessary and meaningful is inconsistent with the approach to section 2(b) developed since Ford. Second, as access to information and freedom of expression are recognized as fundamental to democracy, undue constraint of either right is inconsistent with modern national and international societal values. There is a clear trend in the case law towards increased openness and transparency. 22. Scassa, Teresa. (2010). Journalistic Purposes and Private Sector Data Protection Legislation: Blogs, Tweets and Information Maps. 35 Queens Law Journal, pp. 733. This paper explores how changes in the ways in which information is consumed and disseminated by myriad individuals in myriad forms may impact data protection law in Canada. The author uses examples of blogs, Twitter and information maps to illustrate the problems that will inevitably arise when trying to discern which individuals and which information will properly fit into the journalistic purposes exceptions in Canadian data protection statutes. She suggests that exceptions for the collection, use or disclosure of personal information for journalistic purposes raise vital questions about the purpose and scope of these exceptions. Recent case law illustrates the difficulties faced by decision-makers in defining the scope of these exceptions, particularly given the need to balance the public right to be informed with individual privacy rights. The author considers the journalistic purposes exceptions in light of the role of journalists by analyzing how reporters' privilege, defamation law ('responsible journalism") and ethical codes of conduct might affect and inform current Canadian case law. She then reviews how journalistic purpose exceptions are configured and applied in Australia and the United Kingdom. In the conclusion, the author considers the direction that data protection law in Canada should take. She suggests that a reasonableness test, which attempts to balance the various conflicting interests, should govern decisions on whether information is being provided for a journalistic purpose or for some "other" purpose. 23. Brett, M. 2010, "The information war: rebuilding Canada's Access to Information Act after Afghanistan", Open government, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 1-15. This paper offers a preliminary analysis of the Canadian Access to Information Act (ATIA) in a post-September 11 security environment. The author argues that the ATIA has eroded due to specific legislative reform and due to a culture of increased sensitivity to the release of information within the public service. This lack of information has caused frustration within Parliament and among the Canadian public. Moreover, information has allegedly been concealed in order to protect public officials. Partisan officials also engage in deliberate tactics to avoid the Act. This study concludes with a series of recommendations: senior ranking officials must take a leading role in reviving the Act; the Office of the Information Commissioner must be more assertive; and the Auditor General should conduct a system-wide review of the ATIA. This preliminary study offers direction for further analysis of information regimes in an evolving security environment. 24. Carlson, Jaime, et. al. (2010) On the Road to Fairness: Redesigning Saskatchewan's Administrative Tribunal System. 73 Saskatchewan Law Review, pp. 309-27.

In December 2007, following several months of investigation, Ombudsman Saskatchewan tabled a report before the Legislative Assembly for Saskatchewan titled, Hearing Back: Piecing Together Timeliness in Saskatchewan's Administrative Tribunals. This report made twenty-seven recommendations to the government on ways to improve the timeliness of decision-making in Saskatchewan's administrative tribunals in several distinct areas: best practices related to efficiency, user-friendliness, timelines, board composition and function, accountability, independence, and the coordination of tribunals. The final recommendation, to create systems supporting our tribunals that operate in a coordinated fashion and promote the efficient and effective use of resources, was recognized as being a substantial change from the present system. It is also one of the recommendations likely to have the biggest single impact on ensuring that tribunals function properly, efficiently, and accessibly. Ombudsman Saskatchewan is now supplementing that recommendation, first made in Hearing Back, with this article, arguing for greater coordination of and better support systems for administrative tribunals in Saskatchewan. 25. Jacobs, Laverne Astrid. (2009). Fashioning Administrative Independence at the "Tribunal" Level: An Ethnographic Study of Access to Information and Privacy Commissions in Canada, Osgoode Hall Law School. PhD. Dissertation. This dissertation theorizes from qualitative empirical field research findings. Statutory, legislative officers were used as a case study due to the importance of independence to the work that they do. The author conducted over thirty interviews, held focus group sessions, and spent nine months observing the daily operational context of three commissions responsible for regulating access to information and/or privacy in Canada. Time was spent at the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner/Ontario, at the Qubec Commission d'accs l'information, and at the federal Privacy Commissioner's office in Ottawa. There is a dearth of Canadian administrative law theory that takes a close empirical look at how tribunals function on the ground and that uses an approach based on a qualitative, ethnographic methodology. Moreover, little administrative law scholarship has been done on the government accountability provided by administrative bodies based on the ombudsman model. 26. Kazmierski, V. (2009) Something to Talk About: Is There a Charter Right to Access Government Information? 31 Dalhousie Law Journal, pp. 351-399. 27. Larsen, M. & Piche, J. 2009, "Exceptional State, Pragmatic Bureaucracy, and Indefinite Detention: The Case of the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre", Canadian Journal of Law and Society/Revue canadienne droit et societe, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 203-229. The Kingston Immigration Holding Centre (KIHC) is a purpose-built prison for individuals subject to security certificates, located on the grounds of Millhaven Institution in Bath, Ontario. KIHC was created in 2006 in response to controversy over the use of provincial detention facilities for long-term security-certificate detention. While the security-certificate mechanism and its related processes have been the subject of a growing body of critical sociolegal scholarship, the juridico-political space of KIHC has yet to be described or problematized in depth. The present study addresses this gap by providing a detailed account of the history of the facility and an exploration of the interactions within the Canadian insecurity field that shaped its emergence, governing arrangement, and everyday operations. Given the paucity of publicly available official information about KIHC, our study draws extensively on material obtained through requests filed under the federal Access to Information Act. Building on the existing literature, we frame security-certificate detention as a form of normalized exceptionality made possible by counter-law and argue that it conforms to the juridico-political concept of the camp. We then proceed to describe how this particular camp came into being, with an emphasis on the role played by interactions between professionals and institutions within the Canadian security field. The inter-agency contractual arrangement between the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) that governs KIHC is outlined. We describe this arrangement as the product of the authority to detain indefinitely meeting the capacity to confine pragmatically, under the banner of national security, and consider its implications for CSC's correctional mandate. The KIHC facility emerges as an "ancillary exception," the institutional reflection of attempts to reform and normalize the security-certificate mechanism. We conclude by making a case for the abolition of KIHC.

28. Gentile, P. 2009, "Resisted Access? National Security, the Access to Information Act, and Queer(ing) Archives", Archivaria, no. 68, pp. 141. The anti-homosexual security purges organized by the Security Panel and enforced by the RCMP, represent a sad chapter in Canadian Cold War history. This essay offers some of the authors experiences as she negotiated the maze of classified documents, archives, and historical records held at government departments while researching her book The Canadian War on Queers: National Security as Sexual Regulation, co-authored with Gary Kinsman. The author contends that the national security state can deploy the Access to Information Act (ATI) to create challenges and obstacles for queer historians in their effort to find queers in or to queer the archives. The essay also speculates that in the context of the war on terror, the Anti- Terrorism Act (ATA) will reinforce the negative impact of ATI and thus have detrimental implications for the writing of queer history. 29. German, D. 2010, "A Commentary on Patrizia Gentile's "Resisted Access? National Security, the Access to Information Act, and Queer(ing) Archives"", Archivaria, , no. 69, pp. 1-4. Comments on an article by Patrizia Gentile entitled "Resisted Access? National Security, the Access to Information Act, and Queer(ing) Archives," published in the Fall 2009 issue of Archivaria journal. In her article, Gentile looks at Canada's Access to Information Act in the light of her own archival research into gay history and argues that the exemptions from release found in the legislation may be used to unfairly impede research. Gentile also claims that the legislation will effectively prevent a full and thorough understanding of the security service's past and possibly even future treatment of gays and lesbians in Canada. She implies that the Access to Information Act presents particular problems for those involved in research on queer history, although her assertions appear to stem in part on a misunderstanding of the application of the legislation. 30. Lefebvre, S. 2010, "Canada's Legal Framework for Intelligence", International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 247-295. Reviews the laws & legal mechanisms most pertinent to the core Canadian intelligence agencies, the collectiveindividual rights balance, & protection of intelligence from unauthorized disclosure. Discussion opens with a look at how decisions regarding organization, powers, & mandate are made before addressing the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act, National Defence Act, Immigration & Refugee Protection Act, & Aeronautics Act. Focus turns to legislation & procedures designed to assist intelligence agencies in the protection of their sources & collection methods: the Security of Information Act, Canada Evidence Act, administrative review. Other legislation & processes applicable to Canada's core intelligence agencies & working as checks include the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act, Auditor General Act, Privacy Act, Access to Information Act, & commissions of inquiry. 31. Cahill, Barry. (2009). Ministerial Misfeasance: R. v. Morris and a Unique Early Privacy Breach. 32 Dalhousie Law Journal, pp. 367. According to Klein & Kratchanov (Government Information: The Right to Information and Protection of Privacy in Canada, 2nd ed., 2009), "there is one reported case of a successful private prosecution for violation of an access statute through the unauthorized release of personal information. The matter arose under a former Nova Scotia Act and resulted in a modest fine being imposed against a Minister of the Crown who had disclosed information about the complainant." What follows is a close, contextual study of a case unique in the short history of privacy law in Canada, from the perspective of the thirty-year development of information access and privacy law in Nova Scotia. 32. Broumas, A. (2008). Code, Access to Knowledge and the Law: The Governance of Knowledge in the Digital Age University of Ottawa Law and Technology Journal, 5(1-2), pp. 221. This paper endeavours to clarify the role of technology in the governance of knowledge in the networked information society. Its central argument is that modern technologies of control, deployed as they are by powerful actors, tend to exclude indiscriminately access to knowledge, and, as a result, impede the dramatic potential of the digital age. While exploring the above thesis, the patterns of interrelation between code and the law and their influence on the networked information society are examined. The author argues that the existing equilibrium between control and A2K is disproportionately disposed toward specific private interests, originating primarily from the powerful market players of traditional industrial sectors, while generally disregarding other private interests, or indeed the interest of the public as a whole. The paper concludes by calling for more equitable and

balanced equilibria between control and A2K, implemented in a model of governance more clearly orientated towards social and economic development. 33. Berzins, Christopher. (2008) Personal Information in the Adjudicative Decisions of Administrative Agencies: An Argument for Limits. 34:3 The Advocates Quarterly, pp. 261-84. For a variety of reasons, little consideration has been given to the implications of including sensitive personal information in the adjudicative decisions of administrative agencies. As a result, significant privacy concerns are now emerging as many agencies, with little or no thought for privacy ramifications, make their adjudicative decisions more accessible to the public by making them available online. 34. Rehaag, Sean. (2008). Troubling Patterns in Canadian Refugee Adjudication. Ottawa Law Review 39, pp. 335-65. This article uses data obtained from Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board [IRB] to calculate the refugee claim grant rates of individual IRB adjudicators. The data reveals that, in 2006, grant rates varied significantly across adjudicators. Some adjudicators accorded refugee status in virtually all cases they heard; others granted refugee status rarely, if at all. The article explores several explanations offered by the IRB for refugee claim grant rate variations. These explanations relate to patterns in case assignment due to adjudicator specialization in particular types of cases from particular regions of the world. The author contends that while patterns in case assignment do affect grant rates, they do not account for the full variations evident in the data. Rather, outcomes in refugee adjudication appear to hinge, at least in part, on the identity of the adjudicator assigned. The author draws three main conclusions from the data on refugee adjudication in 2006. First, further empirical research should be undertaken to verify the results of the study and to identify specific features of adjudicator identity that affect refugee claim outcomes. Second, the appointment process for IRB adjudicators should be carefully scrutinized in light of grant rate disparities. Third, given both the grant rate disparities and the life and death stakes involved in refugee adjudication, it is imperative there be opportunities to meaningfully review negative first instance refugee determinations. To this end, the government should immediately implement the provisions in Canada's immigration legislation that establish a Refugee Appeal Division at the IRB. 35. Rankin, M. 2008, "The Access to Information Act 25 Years Later: Toward a New Generation of Access Rights in Canada*", Canadian Journal of Administrative Law & Practice, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 323-359. The Access to Information Act (ATIA) is over a generation old. The purpose of this discussion paper is to identify selected issues that warrant changes to this increasingly outdated law. One thing is abundantly clear: the ATIA is now in desperate need of reform. Even if there had not been serious teething problems resulting from the grafting of a statutory right to records onto a previously secretive parliamentary system of government, the breathtaking strides in information technology since 1982 have caused fundamental and ongoing changes in governments record management practices. Significant and thoughtful proposals for reform have been made almost continuously over the last two decades, but very few have attracted parliamentary attention. For legislation like the ATIA, which the courts have affirmed is quasi-constitutional in nature1, its continuing vitality now hinges upon meaningful reform efforts. This paper reviews recent reform initiatives and examines several key issues that have arisen from changes in technology, out of changes in government programs or from various reform proposals. Rather than simply rehearsing proposals for amendments to particular aspects of the ATIA, the paper begins by situating the ATIA in the context of other legislative access to information initiatives. Annex A summarizes several key reform initiatives, particularly the more recent ones, which may provide useful background before considering the selected issues that are addressed below. 36. Bailey, Jane. (2008). Toward an Equality-Enhancing Conception of Privacy. 31 Dalhousie Law Journal, pp.267. Canadian jurisprudence has explicitly recognized the impact of child pornography on the privacy rights of the children abused in its production. In contrast, it has generally not analyzed other forms of harmful expression, such as hate propaganda and obscenity, to be violations of the privacy rights of those targeted. In a previous article, the author suggested that this distinction in the jurisprudence reflected the relative ease with which the privacy interests of the individual children whose abuse is documented in child pornography meshed with the prevalent

Western approach to privacy as a negative individual liberty against intrusion. Noting the historic role that the individualistic conception of privacy has played in perpetuating inequality, the author suggests that reliance on the prevailing paradigm is unlikely to prove useful in advancing the lived substantive equality of those targeted by hate, child pornography and obscenity. However, before the advancement of privacy claims by targeted members of equality-seeking communities is abandoned, the potential for revising the paradigmatic Western account of privacy should be explored. The author invokes the alternative accounts of privacy developed by Oscar Gandy, Priscilla Regan, and Julie Cohen, who analyze the implications of widespread digital data collection, aggregation, and social profiling. Their work may provide ways of fashioning an account of privacy intrinsically tied to producing substantive equality for groups targeted by and in hate propaganda, obscenity and child pornography, one which may also assist equality-seeking groups more generally. 37. Roach, Kent. (2008). The Role and Capacities of Courts and Legislatures in Reviewing Canada's AntiTerrorism Law. 24 Windsor Review of Legal and Social Issues, pp. 5. This paper critically assesses the respective roles of Parliament and the courts with respect to the review of antiterrorism law. This paper will focus on: 1) the definition of terrorist activities, 2) investigative hearings and preventive arrests, 3) various provisions involving governmental claims of secrecy, and 4) security certificates issued under immigration law. It examines relevant judicial decisions, the three year review reports of committees of the House of Commons and the Senate and relevant legislative debates in February 2007 over the expiry of investigative hearings and preventive arrests. It concludes that courts and legislatures have different but complementary roles to play in the review of anti-terrorism law. Courts are required to examine specific antiterrorism measures with a focus on values such as freedom of expression and the rights of unpopular groups, while legislatures have the ability to develop policy and place specific issues raised by Charter litigation into a broader policy framework. Although courts and legislatures have not always discharged these different duties with distinction since 9/11, both roles remain critical to the development of effective anti-terrorism law. 38. Yeager, M. G. (2006). The Freedom of Information Act as a Methodological Tool: Suing the Government for Data. Canadian Journal of Criminology And Criminal Justice, 48(4), 499-521. The writer discusses two lawsuits that he himself filed under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and the Access to Information Act in Canada, namely Yeager v. Drug Enforcement Administration and Yeager v. Canada (Correctional Service). His discussion highlights both the potential of those acts for obtaining data from governments and the dangers a potential plaintiff confronts when prosecuting the state for a breach of the Freedom of Information Act. He notes that a criminologist who persists in suing the government for research data may feel that he becomes a pariah within the academic world and notes that there is probably no simple answer to the issue of institutional response, given that most universities rely on the state and corporations for the majority of their funding. [LAW HEALTH LAW] 39. Lemmens, Trudo, and Candice Telfer, (2012) "Access to Information and the Right to Health: The Human Rights Case for Clinical Trials Transparency," American Journal of Law and Medicine, Vol. 31, No. 1, While there is a considerable literature on access to essential medicines and human rights, the topic of access to reliable drug safety and effectiveness information has received little or no attention in human rights discourse. The paper argues that access to information related to clinical drug trials is a fundamental component of the right to health. This approach rejoins the claim of authors who characterize clinical drug trials as public goods. Yet, it offers also a legal and moral basis for the immediate implementation of transparency measures, regardless of more fundamental reform of drug regulation. Framing access to clinical trials data as a component of the right to health offers strong support against the argument that transparency measures may violate international trade obligations related to data secrecy and provides a basis for claiming that states have a duty to implement such measures. The paper first provides a detailed overview of the historical development of clinical trials and results reporting registries. It then analyzes the arguments invoked against mandatory trial registration and results reporting, zooming in on claims based on data secrecy obligations under TRIPS and TRIPS agreements. The paper explores why registries can generally be justified under public interest exceptions in international trade agreements and how the existence of data exclusivity regimes already provides protection against unfair commercial use of clinical trials data. In the final section of the paper, the implementation of clinical trial and results reporting

registries is situated in the context of the right to health. This not only promotes individual empowerment in requesting access to relevant health information, but also suggests that states have a duty to develop reliable and publicly accountable information systems. Such systems should enable independent medical research groups and civil society in general to contribute meaningfully to publicly accountable medical research and health product development. 40. Ries, Nola M. (2010) Research Participants' Rights to Access Information about Themselves held by Public Research Institutions. Health Law Journal 18(3) pp. 5-14. As discussed below, a key fair information principle is that individuals ought to be able to know about and access personal information about themselves, especially information held by public institutions. Indeed, freedom of information laws across Canada codify a right to access information held by public bodies, subject only to specified 2 exceptions. What is the scope of a research participants' right to obtain access to information about themselves held by researchers in public institutions, such as universities? How does legislation apply to records created for research purposes? What factors should researchers consider in developing policies to handle access requests? To address these and related questions, this paper discusses the development of Canadian legal principles concerning access to personal information, focusing particularly on health information. It begins with a brief overview of Canadian common law principles about access to health care records, then turns to the development of statutory access to information rules. Legislative provisions that apply to records obtained or created for research purposes are summarised and practical considerations for developing access to information policies are discussed. 41. Ries, N. and Barbara von Tigerstrom. (2009). Cancer Surveillance in Canada: Analysis of Legal and Policy Frameworks and Tools for Reform. Health Law Journal 17, pp. 1-49. Progress in cancer prevention and treatment depends on the collection and analysis of reliable information about the incidence, risk factors, and progression of cancer in the Canadian population. Every jurisdiction in Canada has a public cancer registry, operated by a cancer agency or subsumed within another government department or 1 ministry. These registries contain comprehensive information about patients diagnosed with cancer, which are used for various analyses and reports. Those who operate cancer registries are responsible for maintaining data security and considering requests for access to information by various third party data users. Surveillance and research activities facilitated through cancer registries are recognized as having a compelling public health purpose, but they take place in a context that has become increasingly sensitive to the rights of individuals to protection of their personal information. Ensuring that personal privacy is adequately protected, while maximizing the use of relevant data for surveillance and research, is an important challenge. 42. Archibald, Tom and Trudo Lemmens. (2008) Visions Data Collection from Legally Incompetent Subjects: A Paradigm Legal and Ethical Challenge for Population Databanks. Health Law Journal pp. 145-192. This paper reviews the legal and ethical implications of a loss of decision-making capacity by research subjects in 1 long-term studies in Canadian common law provinces. Presently, the most prominent such study in Canada is the 2 Canadian Lifelong Health Initiative (CLLHI), launched in 2001 by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. The CLLHI aims to conduct large multi-centered longitudinal cohort studies of Canadians. These studies will focus on "the role and interaction of different genetic and environmental exposures involved in the human development and aging processes over the life course, the multi-factorial causes and evolution of common diseases, and the 3 utilization of health care services." In short, the CLLHI will focus on both the beginning and end of life. It will contain a large birth cohort study and a large representative cohort of about 50,000 individuals of 40 years and older. The need for these large cohort studies is that, to truly understand the complex interaction of genetics, environment, and lifestyle on health, it is crucial to follow a large cohort of people for a prolonged period of time. [LAW ENVIRONMENTAL/DEVELOPMENT LAW] 43. Simons, Penelope and Lydia Collins. (2010) Participatory Rights in the Ontario Mining Sector: an International Human Rights Perspective. 6 McGill International Journal of Sustainable Development Law, pp. 177-216. There has been a growing focus in Canada on the environmental and social impacts of national extractive companies operating extraterritorially. However, recent disputes concerning the lack of public consultation on proposed large domestic mining projects, as well as disputes surrounding Aboriginal rights in lands subject to

mining claims, have highlighted significant human rights concerns associated with Canada's domestic provincial and territorial mining regimes. This article assesses, from the perspective of international human rights law, how both emerging and established international human rights of participation are treated in the Ontario mining sector. It examines the extent to which the general right to participation in environmental decision-making, the right of aboriginal communities to free prior and informed consent, and the right of peaceful assembly have been protected through Ontario's mining regime and by the courts in disputes over mining activity on land subject to aboriginal rights and/or title claims. Two recent cases, Frontenac Ventures Corporation v. Ardoch Algonquin First Nation and Platinex Inc. v. Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation, raise serious concerns as to whether domestic law, as it has been applied in the mining sector, is consistent with Canada's international human rights obligations. Moreover, it is not clear that the new Far North Act and recent amendments to the Ontario Mining Act sufficiently address these concerns. 44. Fraser, G.S. & Ellis, J. (2009), "The Canada-Newfoundland Atlantic Accord Implementation Act: Transparency of the Environmental Management of the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry", Marine Policy, vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 312-312. Transparency of the environmental management of the offshore oil and gas industry is examined. The offshore oil and gas sector generates substantial amounts of waste that is typically discharged into the marine environment. In the environmental assessment (EA) process, the public engaged in the review of all three of the focal EAs examined and in the development of the offshore waste treatment guidelines (OWTG). Canada's Access to Information Act also expresses a commitment to the transparency of government operations. In the public environmental audit, the focus is intentionally on the governments' obligations to protect the marine environment and thus the government's obligation to disclose information. [PUBLIC POLICY AND ADMINSTRATION] 45. Gingras, A. 2012, "Access to information: An asset for democracy or ammunition for political conflict, or both?" Canadian Public Administration, vol. 55, no. 2, pp. 221. More than twenty-five years after its adoption, the Access to Information Act has become increasingly a cause for concern among public servants, experts, scientists and the media. This article reviews the evolution of the accessto-information regime since the 1980s, the issues that have arisen, the political significance of information in democracy, and the enduring tension between its democratic purpose and strategic value. The article also examines the issues of centralization, control and secrecy within the state apparatus despite continuing calls for transparency. Under Conservative governments since 2006, there has been increased control and conflict over disclosure of information, which have spread to a larger part of the state apparatus. Among those involved in conflicts over information with the Prime Minister's Office are members and officers of Parliament and parliamentary committees. 46. Collier, R. 2011, "Ontario introduces "hospital secrecy clause"", Canadian Medical Association Journal, vol. 183, no. 9, pp. E552-E552. [Natalie Mehra] also takes issue with how the government tucked the hospital exemption under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act into the provincial budget. "In terms of process, it was introduced in the budget bill but has nothing to do with the budget," she says. "The budget is time-allocated, so moves quickly. But this is a social policy and it's a complex social policy with an array of competing interests, and there has not been proper time to hear various perceptions on this issue." 47. Williamson, A. & Fallon, F. (2011), "Transforming the Future Parliament Through the Effective Use of Digital Media", Parliamentary Affairs, vol. 64, no. 4, pp. 781-792. This article explores research undertaken as part of the Hansard Society's Parliament 2020 project undertaken in the UK, Canada, Chile and Australia, looking at how new technologies can transform internal parliamentary processes and the relationships different legislatures have with the public. It discusses the findings of focus groups and interviews conducted with parliamentarians, parliamentary officials and members of the public, and gives recommendations on how internal processes and legislatures relationships with the public can be improved focused around the areas of modernising processes, improving access to information, enhancing engagement and

48. Brown, David. (2010). The Unfulfilled Promise of Information Management in the Government of Canada. Canadian Political Science Association presentation public administration section. Carleton University. The advent of new information and communications technologies in the 1990s gave a more prominent role to information management (IM) as a discipline of public administration, offering the prospect of knowledge-based government in the knowledge-based economy and society. In the federal government, the promise of IM enabled by networked computing and database technologies has been highlighted by the move towards citizen-centred service and the provision of information-based services to the public. There has also been a growing recognition in many areas of government that their knowledge base is a defining element and a significant asset. This promise has not been fully realized, however, for a number of reasons. These include the historical neglect of information and records management in public administration, compounded by the lack of a unified understanding of what those activities encompass or even of how they relate to each other. There has also been a weak recognition and consequent undervaluing of information as a public resource, compounded by increasingly poor management of that resource in the electronic era. Vulnerabilities arise across the board, from the practices of individual public servants to government wide enterprise information architecture. The treatment of IM as a sub-set of the management of information technology has been another limiting factor, as have wariness at the political level and a weak connection to senior public service governance structures and the public sector reform agenda. The latter two elements are particularly important if the full potential of information and knowledge management is to be realized. 49. Shepherd, E., Stevenson, A. & Flinn, A. (2010), "Information governance, records management, and freedom of information: A study of local government authorities in England", Government Information Quarterly, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 337-345. In many democratic states political rhetoric gives weight to increasing public participation in and understanding of the political process; (re)-establishing public trust in government decision making; increasing transparency, openness, and accountability of public authorities; and, ultimately, improving government decision-making on behalf of citizens. Access to the public record and freedom of information (FOI) are mechanisms which help to facilitate the accountability of public authorities. Many jurisdictions have introduced legislation related to these mechanisms, and the UK government is no exception with its enactment of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in 2000. University College London (UCL) ran a research project over 12 months in 2008-2009, funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council. The research project examined what the impact of the UK FOIA had been on records management services in public authorities, especially local government. This article reports on some of the findings of the study. It considers how FOI compliance and records management functions are organized in local government and the role of information governance which is emerging as an umbrella for such functions. It draws some conclusions about the contributions that records management services make to the ability of local authorities to comply with the FOIA and identifies some ways in which user experience may be affected by the management of records. 50. Reynolds, K. (2010). Submission to the special committee to review the BC freedom of information and protection of privacy act. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. 25pp. Access to information laws are critical because they establish the public's right to timely access to information; yet all too frequently, governments do their best to avoid transparency and accountability by denying or delaying requests for information. This submission makes recommendations for strengthening British Columbia's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act in the public interest. 51. Worthy, B. (2010), "More Open but Not More Trusted? The Effect of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 on the United Kingdom Central Government", Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institutions, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 561-582. This article examines the impact of Britain's Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2000 on British central government. The article identifies six objectives for FOI in the United Kingdom and then examines to what extent FOI has met them, briefly comparing the United Kingdom with similar legislation in Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada. It concludes that FOI has achieved the core objectives of increasing transparency and accountability,

though the latter only in particular circumstances, but not the four secondary objectives: improved decisionmaking by government, improved public understanding, increased participation, and trust in government. This is not because the Act has 'failed' but because the objectives were overly ambitious and FOI is shaped by the political environment in which it is placed. 52. Hazell, R. & Worthy, B. (2010), "Assessing the performance of freedom of information", Government Information Quarterly, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 352-359. How well has the UK FOI Act worked in practice now that it has been in force for 4 years? This article discusses how to measure the performance of FOI regimes. It presents the evidence on the performance of FOI in the UK measured against comparative data from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Ireland, countries with access to information legislation and similar political systems. On a range of measures, the UK Act is found to have performed reasonably well, but it also suffers from problems common to all FOI regimes. The article concludes with some observations on what makes for a successful FOI regime, and how to measure it. 53. Collins, J.L. & Wellman, B. (2010), "Small Town in the Internet Society: Chapleau Is No Longer an Island", American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 53, no. 9, pp. 1344-1366. This article analyzes the impact of new digital media on the residents of Chapleau, a remote rural town in Northern Ontario, Canada. As in urban situations, broadband e-mail in Chapleau facilitates communication with friends and relatives who live locally and far away. But unlike their use in urban situations, mobile phones are rarely used locally in Chapleau: They are for trips outside of town. Broadband use has aided health care, shopping, and information gathering. Indeed, it is the increased connectivity to the outside that stands out, making Chapleau much less of an 'island.' 54. Fraser, G.S. & Ellis, J. (2009), "The Canada-Newfoundland Atlantic Accord Implementation Act: Transparency of the Environmental Management of the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry", Marine Policy, vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 312-312. Transparency of the environmental management of the offshore oil and gas industry is examined. The offshore oil and gas sector generates substantial amounts of waste that is typically discharged into the marine environment. In the environmental assessment (EA) process, the public engaged in the review of all three of the focal EAs examined and in the development of the offshore waste treatment guidelines (OWTG). Canada's Access to Information Act also expresses a commitment to the transparency of government operations. In the public environmental audit, the focus is intentionally on the governments' obligations to protect the marine environment and thus the government's obligation to disclose information. 55. Thomas, P.G. (2007), "Parliamentary Scrutiny and Redress of Grievances", Canadian Parliamentary Review, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 6-11. Clearly, unaided Parliaments could not provide the necessary continuous surveillance of the vast range of administrative decision-making and actions affecting individual citizens. Parliamentarians have always used "casework" on behalf of constituents to oversee the bureaucracy. When problems were blatant or left unresolved, matters could be raised in Question Period or in committees when Estimates were being examined. These efforts were useful as a "spot check" on the exercise of bureaucratic power. By providing a "visible" person to whom citizens could take complaints, constituency service activity puts a "human face" on "big" government. However, the casework approach relied upon the willingness and capacity of individual parliamentarians to secure information, explanations and changes to the decisions of permanent officials. Eventually, Parliaments concluded that the right of citizens to fair treatment should not be as variable as the political redress mechanism left open. There is a submerged and opaque quality to those processes. We do not know how thorough, procedurally and substantively fair and balanced such processes are. Are public servants entitled to due process when they deal with investigative bodies? If they are the subject of a negative report, what recourse do they have? Even if they are not named, how do they recover their reputations and the trust of others who know they have been the target of an investigation? I once interviewed a group of access to information coordinators in federal departments. A minority of them felt they had been "pushed around" by aggressive staff from the Information Commissioner's office which regularly issued annual reports full of "high octane" rhetoric about a "bureaucratic cul- ture of

secrecy." Such passages provided wonderful fodder for parliamentary theatrics and the media machine, while more tempered and balanced observations went unnoticed. Access coordinators felt trapped between the public's right to know and the department's obsession to protect its reputation. Even if the coordinators managed to stay out of trouble, theirs was in many respects a lonely and thankless job with no clear career ladder to climb. Front line public servants make the protective laws work they deserve our respect and are entitled to support and fair treatment. 56. Roberts, Benita. (2007). The right of access to information in public administration. PhD. Dissertation. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (Act 108 of 1996) stipulates that every person has the right of access to information held by government. To give effect to his right, legislation in the form of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 (Act 2 of 2000) was promulgated. This study explores the access to information regime that was established by die aforementioned legislation with specific reference to similar regimes in the United States of America, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Attention is also devoted to the prerequisites and potential obstacles associated with the implementation of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000. Based on the practices in other states, the conclusion was reached that the nature of information that may be requested in the South African context should be expanded, that cabinet records should only be excluded to the extent that disclosure thereof would be harmful, that frequently requested records should be made automatically available and that decision-making guidelines of government institutions should be published. As far as procedural requirements are concerned, it is proposed that information officers should acknowledge receipt of requests and that, where necessary, records should be translated to ensure that they are useful to a requester. It is further proposed that the wording of the ground of refusal regarding policy formulation and decision-making in government institutions be amended to take account of the consequences of disclosure. It is imperative that appeal and review mechanisms be accessible to members of the public and it is therefore proposed that an information commissioner be instituted to settle disputes in information related matters. Lastly it is proposed that sanctions be imposed against officials who deliberately undermine the public's right of access to information and that separate units be established in government institutions to deal exclusively with requests for access to information. making effective use of technologies. [POLITICAL SCIENCE/SOCIOLOGY] 57. Clment, D. 2011, "A Sociology of Human Rights: Rights through a Social Movements Lens", The Canadian Review of Sociology, vol. 48, no. 2, pp. 121. This article offers a framework for developing a sociology of human rights using social movements to understand local rights cultures. The idea of human rights has historically been highly statist, but grass-roots activism has been at the heart of the most profound human rights advances in Canada. The article also raises questions about the current state of sociological writing about Canada. The author contends that there is a serious lack of engagement among English and French sociologists, and too few scholars provide genuine "national" studies. Moreover, restrictive access to information legislation represents a serious obstacle to academic research in Canada. 58. Walby, K. & Monaghan, J. 2011, "Private Eyes and Public Order: Policing and Surveillance in the Suppression of Animal Rights Activists in Canada", Social Movement Studies, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 21-37. This article examines how policing, security, and intelligence agencies have networked with private agents in a campaign targeting Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) in Canada. SHAC is a network of autonomous groups that coordinate an international campaign to disrupt the animal testing corporation, Huntingdon Life Sciences. Unlike in the USA and the UK, where SHAC groups have been targeted by a series of extraordinary legislative initiatives that are coordinated at a national level, the campaign directed at SHAC-Canada has its root in the work of private detectives. Drawing from the results of Access to Information Act requests and interviews with SHAC members, we discuss how the preliminary surveillance conducted by private detectives facilitated a multi-scalar policing effort that includes a network of municipal, provincial, national, and international police-intelligence agencies. To enrich existing typologies of social movement repression, we emphasize the role that private security plays in monitoring activists and in providing information to public police. Our research suggests that public and private agencies involved in regulation of SHAC are networked through surveillance, engaging in information sharing that casts a wider net of suppression.

59. Walby, K. & Monaghan, J. (2011), ""Haitian Paradox" or Dark Side of the Security-Development Nexus? Canada's Role in the Securitization of Haiti, 2004-2009", Alternatives, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 273. Drawing on analysis of government records obtained using Access to Information Act requests, the author examines the securitization of Canada's aid program to Haiti between 2004 and 2009. The author discusses how Canadian agencies, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Correctional Service of Canada (CSC), and the Canadian International Development Agency, were involved in capacity-building initiatives that focused on police reform, border surveillance, and prison construction/refurbishment across Haiti in the aftermath of a coup that ousted the democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The author demonstrates how these efforts at securitization resulted in what officials referred to as the "Haitian Paradox," whereby reorganization of the Haitian National Police force led to higher arrest rates and jail bloat, creating conditions that violated rather than ameliorated human rights. While the securitization project may have been based on the rule of law and human rights in Canadian policy makers' official discourse, in practice these securitization efforts exacerbated jail overcrowding, distrust of police, and persecution of political opposition. The author therefore demonstrates one way that international development, aid, and criminal justice intersect, with emphasis on the transnational aspects of RCMP and CSC activities. 60. Boulianne, S. (2010) Connecting, informing, and mobilizing youth and the advantaged: The role of the Internet in political engagement. Ph.D. Dissertation. The Internet may re-invigorate civic life by increasing access to political information, facilitating political discussion, developing social networks, and offering alternative and convenient venues for political engagement. Two theories explain how the Internet could have a positive impact on political life. The theories have different implications on political inequality. One theory is that the Internet will facilitate or reinforce engagement among those people who are already interested, knowledgeable, and engaged in civic life. This argument finds some support in the findings that the wealthy, the educated, and men are more likely to use the Internet, particularly for finding civic and political information. As such, political inequalities seem to be replicated by Internet use. Another theory is that the Internet will reduce the costs of accessing political information and engaging in political activities, which may entice a broader set of citizens to become politically engaged. For example, the easy access to information and the online information exchange process may reduce the prerequisite level of political interest required to become politically informed. In these ways, the Internet could reduce political inequalities by expanding political knowledge and engagement. This theory finds some support in the findings that the relationship of visiting news websites and political expression is stronger for young people, compared to other age groups. A secondary source of support for this theory is the finding that low-income people are as likely and frequently to use the Internet to find government information, compared to their advantaged counterparts. This research uses data from the Canadian General Social Survey 2000 and a meta-analysis of existing research. While the findings offer some support for reducing political inequality, the overall findings suggest that the advantaged are reaping the greatest benefit from Internet use. Instead of broadening the characteristics of political actors, Internet use seems to transform additional members of advantaged groups into political actors. The analysis offers several solutions for enabling disadvantaged and disengaged groups to use the Internet in civic ways, such as expanding computer skills, which are demonstrated to have a strong effect on likelihood of Internet use and civic uses of the Internet. 61. Drapeau, M.W. 2009, "A commentary from Canada: Canada's access to information", Open government, vol. 5, no. 1. According to a well-established expert, the Canadian access-to-information (ATI) regime is at a standstill and in a state of paralysis. In an Opinion Piece, Michel W. Drapeau, a lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa and the co-author of an authoritative legal textbook on Canadian access to information, contends that the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) is currently unable to perform its sole and unique role of investigating complaints from ATI users. In the process, the OIC has accumulated a two-year backlog of complaints, a high percentage of which dealing with straightforward delay complaints. This backlog permits several federal institutions to enjoy a two-year amnesty (extension) period to release records as no judicial recourse is possible until the OIC completes its investigation of a complaint. It also encourages many institutions to claim a range of exemptions, exclusions or exaggerated fees, which they would not otherwise be permitted under the act, knowing that under the circumstances it will take the OIC no less than the said two years to adjudicate an eventual

complaint by a dissatisfied ATI user. Either way, requested records remain sealed until the OIC performs its investigative duties and makes findings, creating more and more illusory the Canadian quasi-constitutional, right of access to government records within a 30-day statutory delay period.