According to the testimonies collected by Radio-Canada from three health officials responsible for access to information requests in three different regions, there is an internal consultation mechanism within the state apparatus on responses to whether or not to respond to these requests made by the public and the media.
According to the three people who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity, there is a political influence in the processing of the requests. Some even claim that all means are good to deny access
to public documents.
However, the existence of such a process is contrary to the law which stipulates that citizens have the right to this information within the parameters of confidentiality provided for by the legislation on access to documents of public bodies.
Transparency
Accused by the opposition in the National Assembly of lacking transparency and of trying to control information by putting pressure on the state apparatus, Prime Minister François Legault warned his political opponents to pay attention to the intentions attributed to the government following the publication of this article.
What we are talking about in the article is the presidents of CISSS or CIUSSS who did not agree with their officials on the information that should be given
he continued.
We are not talking about politics, we are not talking about people who are in the cabinet or who are ministers or prime ministers. We’re talking about officials who said to officials, “Here’s the information you can make public”
defended the Prime Minister.
The Parti Québécois MNA for the Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Joël Arseneau, immediately pointed out to François Legault that the CEOs of CIUSSS and CISSS are appointed by the Minister of Health and that he is therefore not impossible for them to be subject to political pressure in the processing of access to information requests.
” What I say to the CEOs of CISSS and CIUSSS is: “Respect the law […] and everything that can be given must be given”, and that’s what we’ve been doing since the start of the pandemic. »
Reform needed
For his part, the official opposition critic for access to information, Gaétan Barrette, urged the minister responsible for access to information and the protection of personal information, Éric Caire, review the Act respecting access to documents held by public bodies to ensure not the autonomy, but the independence of those who manage access requests, like what we did with whistleblowers
.
Dissatisfied with Mr. Cairo’s response, the Liberal MP entertained the gallery by showing a poster showing a business card from the minister redacted in marker. Éric Caire had already asked, jokingly, during a credit study session, to call him Sharpie
.
“Culture of opacity”
In the ranks of Québec solidaire, the parliamentary leader Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois also pleaded for a reform of the law, but also for a change of culture within the government.
In Quebec, there is a culture of opacity and a culture of lack of transparency in the state apparatus. Talk to Louis Robert. Talk to the whistleblowers, then I want to say, talk to yourself, there, talk to the journalists who are breaking their teeth about this culture of opacity and lack of transparency that is specific to Quebec
launched Mr. Nadeau-Dubois.
Don’t ask me where it comes from exactly, it’s a vast question, but we’ve known for decades that this problem exists.
What is needed, according to Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, is above all a massive political will
to change that culture.
François Legault presented himself to Quebecers saying: “I am the change, I am going to change that, that system.” Not only has it failed, but the Quebec state is more opaque than ever. We have been under a state of health emergency for two years, more than two years.
” He treats people who ask for information as threats, except that the real threat is not information, it is not transparency. The real threat is darkness. »
Reference-ici.radio-canada.ca