Ontario Liberals seek a reverse of freedom of information changes

Ontario’s opposition wants the Ford government to scrap its plans to change the province’s freedom of information laws.

The legislation was passed last month during a rare late-night sitting at Queen’s Park.

The bill was made retroactive and exempts the Premier and cabinet members from giving up certain materials.

The Liberal’s Ethics critic, Stephanie Smyth, alleges that court cases involving the government are a reason for it to be done.

“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 attempted to force a vote on Monday to overturn the changes.

“After eight years of Doug Ford steamrolling Ontario, clearly we need to elevate our integrity standards, not lower them,” says Smyth.