There’s something unconvincing about the arguments being made by area MP Tony Clement and his government for eliminating a tool which was used by many Canadian researchers to find information about government activity.

If this move isn’t about controlling the message, then why hasn’t the federal government come up with an alternate tool rather than dismantling one which, up until the beginning of April, was being used on a regular basis by people looking into existing information requests from various federal institutions?

The original intent of creating the Co-ordination to Access to Information Requests System (CAIRS) may have been strictly to help government keep track of such requests and ensure a co-ordinated response. But, the tool quickly became useful to citizens as well. It helped people in the information-gathering process and may have effectively turned  the system’s originally intended use on its head.

While actual documents could not be viewed through CAIRS, the name and file number of those documents could be found and later requested from the appropriate agencies. It also helped researchers refine their own search and zero in on existing Freedom of Information requests.

It is interesting to note that a website with a search mechanism was made possible by a university professor who maintained a site with information received through CAIRS. That torch was later taken up by a journalist using those same monthly reports generated by CAIRS.

Unfortunately, last month the Harper government abruptly decided to shut the system down, instructing federal agencies reporting to the system to stop doing so.

Not having a centralized system means that federal institutions will be able to keep that information closer to their chest as individuals will be forced to approach them directly about all their queries rather than piggy-back on existing requests for information.

It is still more worrisome when such a decision occurs and the office of the information commissioner, an independent body, isn’t consulted.

All of this begs the question: Is Canada’s new federal regime really more transparent, as promised in the height of their election campaign?

We think not.
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