From FOI to front page news! | Accès à l’information à la une!

Info Matters

Jim Bronskill is an award-winning reporter with the Ottawa bureau of The Canadian Press news agency, specializing in security and intelligence, policing, and justice-related issues. He also frequently writes about privacy in the digital realm.

• The path to a career in journalism [2:31]
• How investigative journalism has changed over the years [4:11]
• Freedom of information (FOI) requests as an important reporting tool [4:51]
• The iceberg theory of journalism [5:31]
• Uncovering the rest of the iceberg through freedom of information [6:20]
• Balancing FOI response times with news deadlines [6:55]
• Ways to advance and modernize the access to information system [8:20]
• Big news stories that began as freedom of information requests [11:15]
• Learning about the use of Tasers by the RCMP through FOI [12:18]
• The Tommy Douglas files [15:55]
• Tips for making access requests [18:43]
• Key challenges to access to information and the right to know [24:30]
• The need for strong leadership on access to information, modernized laws, and practical administrative solutions [25:31]

Resources:

• Your Right to Know (book by Jim Bronskill)
• Demystifying the FOI Process (Info Matters episode about the steps involved in making an access request)
• IPC strategic priority: Privacy and Transparency in a Modern Government
• RCMP edits Taser reports, probe finds (Toronto Star)
• Documents detail hours before Taser death (Toronto Star)
• CBC, The Canadian Press win Michener award for Taser probe (CBC.ca)
• RCMP plans dramatic changes to Taser policy (Toronto Star)
• Restoring Public Confidence: Restricting the Use of Conducted Energy Weapons in British Columbia (Braidwood Commission Report)
• Why? The Robert Dziekanski Tragedy(Braidwood Commission Report)

Info Matters is a podcast about people, privacy, and access to information hosted by Patricia Kosseim, Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. We dive into conversations with people from all walks of life and hear stories about the access and privacy issues that matter most to them.

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Have an access to information or privacy topic you want to learn more about? Interested in being a guest on the show? Send us a tweet @IPCinfoprivacy or email us at [e-mail].

The information, opinions, and recommendations presented in this podcast are for general information only. It should not be relied upon as a substitute for legal advice. Unless specifically stated otherwise, the IPC does not endorse, approve, recommend, or certify any information, product, process, service, or organization presented or mentioned in this podcast, and information from this podcast should not be used or reproduced in any way to imply such approval or endorsement. None of the information, opinions and recommendations presented in this podcast bind the IPC’s Tribunal that may be called upon to independently investigate and decide upon an individual complaint or appeal based on the specific facts and unique circumstances of a given case.