Court rules Ottawa negligent, ignorant

Year Published:  1991
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX4257

Abstract: 
The Federal Court of Appeal has ruled that the federal government acted "negligently and ignorantly" towards a journalist seeking information about the impact of free trade. Toronto Star writer Martin Cohn attempted back in 1985 to gain access to government studies on the potential impact of the then-proposed free trade agreement with the United States. He was told by government officials to file a request under the Access to Information Act -- which he proceeded to do -- and then was stonewalled for eight months. Cohn, with the support of the federal Information Commissioner, then filed suit against the Department of External Affairs. The government's stonewalling was later shown to have been part of a deliberately adopted strategy of withholding any meaningful information about free trade as a way to prevent it from becoming a public issue. In ruling against the government's actions, the Federal Court of Appeal said that the government "delayed unduly", sought extensions that "were not justified", "acted unreasonably", "breached the requirements" of the Act, and "acted negligently and ignorantly outside the spirit of the Act". When eventually released by the government, the studies were heavily censored on the grounds that the contents would be "injurious to the conduct of international affairs." The deleted passages later turned out to be those portions which documented the potential negative impacts of the trade deal most clearly.