Ontario’s opposition party is urging the Ford government to abandon its proposed changes to the province’s freedom of information laws.
The new legislation was approved last month during an unusual late-night session at Queen’s Park.
This bill applies retroactively and allows the Premier and cabinet members to withhold certain documents.
The Liberal Ethics critic, Stephanie Smyth, claims that ongoing court cases involving the government are driving this move.
“It is not enough that the government is changing the law to hide its secrets, but it’s also being dishonest about why they are doing it,” says Smyth
“The government’s approach to changing freedom of information was to bury it in a budget and then not have the budget, the largest single document piece of legislation annually, not go to committee,” says Interim Liberal leader John Fraser.
“They were in a hurry. They were in a hurry because they wanted to circumvent the courts. They wanted to circumvent the law.”
Ontario’s Liberals tried to force a vote on Monday in order to reverse these changes.
“After eight years of Doug Ford steamrolling Ontario, clearly we need to elevate our integrity standards, not lower them,” says Smyth.
Randy Thoms is a veteran news broadcaster with over 40 years’ experience. He is based in Fort Frances and covers stories across northwestern Ontario. Contact Randy at thoms. randy@radioabl. ca.
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