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Who will protect rights?

Dear Editor: Will Burnaby's current four MLAs - Harry Bloy, Raj Chouhan, Kathy Corrigan, and Richard Lee - be amongst those who take a public stand to protect the democratic rights of Burnaby residents? Some democratic rights are won and protected in

Dear Editor:

Will Burnaby's current four MLAs - Harry Bloy, Raj Chouhan, Kathy Corrigan, and Richard Lee - be amongst those who take a public stand to protect the democratic rights of Burnaby residents?

Some democratic rights are won and protected in the battlefield, as we remember every Nov. 11. Some are won in our legislative assemblies. In 1992 a victory for our democracy was won when our elected members of the provincial legislature passed B.C.'s first freedom of information law.

B.C.'s freedom of information legislation grants us a right to access any document held by the provincial government unless limited exceptions apply. Without FOI laws, governments are like vaults that lock up government documents. But under the FOI law, public bodies become something like public libraries where government officials are the librarians of documents and everyone is a library patron. While there are many reasons a person or organization might learn to use their access rights, two important ones are that it wards off corruption in government and it expands our capacities for civic engagement.

In 1992, Tim Riley, an international information consultant who helped bring in Canada's Access to Information Act 10 years earlier, considered our FOI law "the best possible piece of legislation and the best in North America, if not the world."

But signs are saying it is time for Burnaby's elected officials to protect and renew this important democratic right.

One sign came in September. The Canadian Newspaper Association and the Canadian Community Newspapers Association, in a joint initiative, published the results of an audit of government compliance with freedom of information laws around the country. In a special chapter of the report titled "The B.C. Disadvantage," the researchers note that "B.C. has accepted for itself a lower standard of service than other jurisdictions (in Canada)." For speed of disclosure, we find our government was given a grade of F.

Another sign came on Nov. 8. Documents, acquired through freedom of information and posted on www.openinfo. gov.bc.ca revealed something that requires the B.C. Government be held accountable. Section 68 of our B.C. FOI law requires the B.C. government to "prepare an annual report on its administration and lay the report before the Legislative Assembly as soon as possible." However, according to the posted documents "the most recent completed annual report" was submitted to our legislative assembly on June 2, 1995 - almost 16 and a half years ago!

Harry Bloy, Raj Chouhan, Kathy Corrigan, and Richard Lee - who amongst you will take a public stand to protect, renew and improve our democratic right to access information enshrined in our once great FOI law? Voters have a right to know.

Mark Weiler, by email