Rathgeber proposes to cut CBC clauses from private members’ bill

Government amendments to a private member’s bill that aims to remove an exemption from the federal Access to Information Act for CBC/Radio-Canada would have the opposite effect and result in more legal disputes between the public broadcaster and the federal information commissioner, independent MP Brent Rathgeber said. Bill C-461, formally called the CBC and Public Service Disclosure and Transparency Act, was debated at report stage in the House of Commons on Friday where Rathgeber, who tabled the bill in November 2012, proposed amendments to remove any mention of CBC. Rathgeber, who resigned from the Conservative caucus in June over government amendments to his private member’s bill at committee stage, said in an interview that his newly proposed amendments to the bill are in response to those changes. “Things happened at the committee stage that make the bill, in its current form, worse than the existing ,” he said. “The way it’s drafted makes it worse.” Among other objectives, C-461 aims to remove CBC's exemption from the federal Access to Information Act for “information that is under the control of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that relates to its journalistic, creative or programming activities, other than information that relates to its general administration.” Under the government’s amendments, the bill would create a new “exclusion” under the act for information “that would reveal the identity of any confidential journalistic source” used by CBC journalists. The amended bill would also allow the head of the public broadcaster to “refuse to disclose” CBC records requested under the Access to Information Act “if the disclosure could reasonably be expected to prejudice the Corporation’s journalistic, creative or programming independence.” Rathgeber said the government’s amendment that created an “absolute exclusion” for information relating to CBC’s journalistic sources is unnecessary because the names of those sources are already exempted from information requests under federal privacy laws. The exclusion would make information relating to those sources outside the Access to Information Act’s scope, which would prevent the federal information commissioner from reviewing the requested documents to ensure they shouldn’t be released, he said. The result, he said, would be more litigation between the information commissioner and the public broadcaster to determine whether those documents can be reviewed. “The amended bill … is actually worse than the status quo,” Rathgeber said Friday in the House of Commons. “My intent was to provide clarity and certainty and to have less litigation rather than more litigation.” Dan Albas, parliamentary secretary to Treasury Board President Tony Clement, said the government’s June amendments to the bill followed consultation with relevant stakeholders. Those amendments, he added, would help ensure CBC is required to respond to access to information requests as other Crown corporations would. “It’s important to recognize that bills are sent to the committee stage review as part of our democratic process,” Albas said Friday in the House of Commons. “Committee review allows for input from stakeholders, from expert witnesses and from those who may be impacted by any proposed piece of legislation.” Rathgeber said his newly proposed amendments would strip C-461 of any mention of the Access to Information Act’s application to CBC. He told The Wire Report that he would still like to see the CBC’s current exemption from the act “repaired.” “Somebody’s still going to have to fix it,” he said. “Everyone agrees it’s flawed, but I think this bill actually makes it worse after the government amended it, so I’m going to propose amendments to delete everything.” Brad Otley, a staff member in Rathgeber’s office, said Friday that he expects the bill will be back up for debate in the House of Commons in February, when MPs will vote on Rathgeber’s proposed amendments and whether to move the bill to third-reading stage. The Prime Minister's Office did not respond to a request for comment for this story by publication Friday. —With reporting by Nicholas Kyonka at nkyonka@thewirereport.ca and editing by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca

Rathgeber proposes to cut CBC clauses from private members’ bill

Broadcast | November 22, 2013

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