Please advise!
I need to petition the Access to Information Standing Committee and I am unclear who and under which conditions can do it. I have called and emailed the Committee but apparently no one knows.
I have hard proof that Foreign Affairs had made its own version law to actively filter out records and I have presented the proofs to the OIC but the OIC refuses to act. It even refuses to register my latest complaint.
I know of the noises the OIC has made recently about delays and all but there is a deeper root the these problems and that is the OIC itself. I do not think the government was less secretive in the days of John Reid - he just had the guts to act instead of lamenting. Today's OIC is just politics, smoke and mirrors.
And I do not think the situation will change unless _we_ force the change. I am really surprised to see there is no NGO or watchdog in Canada to take on access to information?
Also, if anyone could recommend a lawyer in the Montreal/Ottawa area so that I can discuss the situation with, I would appreciate. Ideally, the lawyer should have a genuine interest in access to information and should have good record helping the community.
Backgound information: the access requests are researching a mining company and the net of complicities goes quite high in the government. Hence, Foreign Affairs and the OIC know they are protected when breaking the laws.
_Any_ advice is appreciated.