An Ottawa investigator is asking a judge to order Canada’s national archives to expedite work on his request for old RCMP records after he was told to wait at least 80 years for a response.
In a notice of request to the Federal Court, Michael Dagg says that Library and Archives Canada “has not been able to establish any valid basis for the extraordinary extension of time” to process your request under the Access to Information Act.
The case is just the latest example of the frustrations and long delays that many access law users experience, particularly when trying to obtain historical records.
In March 2018, Dagg submitted a request for Library and Archives access to the records of Project Anecdote, a fraud and corruption investigation conducted by the RCMP in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The archives identified 780,000 pages of paper and microfilm records, including investigation reports, witness statements, briefing notes, exhibits, search warrants, and communications with foreign governments.
Library and Archives said it would need a 29,200-day extension to process the request, with an expiration date of March 25, 2098.
Dagg, a former user of the access law, said in an interview that he requested the RCMP records out of curiosity about the police investigation. He called the delay “scandalous” and said the archives should have a more constructive plan.
What people are reading
Dagg’s attorney, Paul Champ, said that asking for an extension “measured in decades is a bad joke on Canadians.”
“It is sad that government departments view access to information legislation as an inconvenience that they can ignore. Library and Archives Canada should make it easier for Canadians to access, not help bury government secrets.”
Dagg complained in May 2018 to the information commissioner, an advocate for users of the access law.
The man looking for #RCMP files goes to court after the national archives @LibraryArchives take an extension of 80 years. #CDNPoli
Commissioner Caroline Maynard learned that it took Library and Archives a year and a half to digitize the documents and much longer to review the records and remove material too sensitive for release.
Consultations with the RCMP and the Department of Justice were likely necessary, with the possibility that others, including foreign governments, said the commissioner’s October 2021 report.
Furthermore, the 80-year estimate did not even take into account the processing of relevant information in a variety of audiovisual and digital media.
Maynard concluded that while processing the large volume of records in the standard 30-day period established in the access law would interfere with the operations of the files, the 80-year extension was not reasonable.
It said that the link between the justifications presented by Library and Archives and the length of the extension was not adequately explained, nor did the files demonstrate that the work required to provide access within “any time period materially less” than 80 years would interfere with its operations.
In March 2021, the Library and Archives gave a new deadline of 65 years to process the request.
Still, the commissioner’s report said the organization had neither defined nor obtained the resources necessary to handle the application, nor worked to complete it in a meaningful way.
Maynard recommended that a response to the request be provided “immediately,” but the Library and Archives declined to relent.
The chief librarian and archivist said prioritizing completion “is simply not possible without severely impacting LAC’s operations and, in particular, its ability to maintain equitable services to fulfill requests from other Canadians.”
Dagg wants the court to order the Library and Archives to process the records promptly and issue quarterly interim releases of the relevant documents while the processing of other records continues.
The information commissioner’s findings were basically ignored in this case, showing just how damaged the system is, Champ said.
“If the Federal Court cannot stop this willful violation of the law by Archives Canada, it will highlight why reform is so necessary.”
This Canadian Press report was first published on January 6, 2022.
Reference-www.nationalobserver.com