The provincial government is set to roll out new laws aimed at updating its privacy regulations for today’s world.
The revised rules are expected to enhance data protection and safeguard children’s information.
However, these new guidelines will also exempt the premier, cabinet ministers, and their aides from Freedom of Information (FOI) laws that allow the public access to internal discussions and documents.
The announcement came during a press conference on Friday led by Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement Stephen Crawford.
“We’re moving forward with a clear, balanced, and future-ready package of reforms, starting with protecting the integrity of cabinet decision-making,” Crawford stated.
The minister presented these changes as a way to align the province’s regulations with those across the country regarding cabinet confidentiality.
When reporters questioned whether the government had something to conceal, Crawford asserted that “this government has probably one of the most transparent governments in the history of Ontario.”
The updates will be applied retroactively to previous records from cabinet ministers and the premier, raising concerns for ongoing legal cases involving the Ontario government, like the Greenbelt scandal.
At the press conference, Crawford highlighted that this law hadn’t been revised in 40 years, noting that when old provincial privacy laws were established, smartphones, cyber threats, and cloud computing were not yet around.
When asked about how smartphones relate to cabinet confidentiality, he responded that “smartphones have everything to do with cabinet confidentiality because smartphones didn’t exist when the legislation that we’re changing today was written.”
When pressed for further explanation, Crawford simply reiterated that smartphones, cloud computing, and cyber threats weren’t present in the 1980s.
Sam Goldstein is a 2025 graduate of the Seneca Polytechnic journalism program. Sam’s great passions are for history, politics, and food. Born and raised in Toronto, he works as a multimedia journalist in Thunder Bay. You can reach him at goldsteins@radioabl. ca.
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