Thousands of miles from a U.S. voting booth, a Russian company with a history of pushing propaganda sought to sway the U.S. presidential election through social media. That is a threat to democracy. Amid the chaos of Venezuela, the constitution is set to be rewritten following a questionable referendum. That, of course, is a threat to democracy.
But closer to home, British Columbia faces a different democratic threat: sloth.
By law, B.C.’s government must respond to freedom of information requests within 30 days. But approximately 20 per cent of the time, our previous Liberal government broke that law, according to a recent report from B.C.’s privacy commissioner.
By 2016, our government appeared to be overrun by sedated banana slugs, as the response time for overdue requests leaped from 47 to 62 days. However, the most dazzling displays of sluggishness were reserved for journalists, who faced the longest lag time.
While not precisely a slow coup, the trend is nonetheless troubling. If the government controls when information is released, it can control how it will be perceived, discussed, and used.
Freedom of information requests must be honoured. And not just because we need to know how much lead is in our drinking water. And not just because, as a CBC freedom of information request recently revealed, our previous Liberal government asked oil and gas companies to refine the language of recommendations related to climate change.
No, the most basic reason these requests must be honoured is because the information belongs to us.
And without timely, easy access to information, the simple fact is that that information becomes stale and lost in the process.
We certainly hope one of new Premier John Horgan’s memos to both his government’s new bureaucrats and MLAs is simply: In the case of freedom of information requests, sooner is better than later.
