Quebec journalists federation calls for access to information law overhaul

The Quebec journalists federation is calling for a swift overhaul of Quebec's access to information law after a Radio-Canada journalist received fully redacted documents.

On Wednesday, Radio-Canada revealed that an ethical opinion had been circulating internally on Dec. 29, 2021 to inform the government of the relevance of re-establishing a curfew in Quebec to counter the rise in cases of COVID-19.

But Quebec Public Health's ethical opinion on the curfew had been completely redacted before being sent to journalist Thomas Gerbet following a request made under the Act respecting access to documents.

The unredacted two-page document was later released, revealing Montreal Public Health was against the curfew.

Michaël Nguyen, president of the Professional Federation of Journalists of Quebec (FPJQ), denounced this practice in a news release Friday.

"This kind of case, without saying that it's the norm, it happens regularly," Nguyen said in an interview Saturday, adding the FPJQ is currently conducting a survey on the subject.

It's "so laughable" that journalists who receive fully redacted documents often expose them on social media, he said.

"It just increases the cynicism of the population. It gives grist to the mill for people who are against public health measures and who think that it's a big conspiracy."

This is not the first time that Radio-Canada has come up against the Legault government after making access to information (ATI) requests. It also received redacted documents after requesting documents related to pandemic spending and on air quality in schools.

A long-standing problem

All governments, over the years, have mentioned the need to update this law, which was adopted 40 years ago, according to Nguyen.

"We talk about it occasionally, but in the end, there is never much that is done," he said.

Philippe Couillard's Liberal government tabled a bill to this effect in May 2018, after a request from the FPJQ and many other media outlets. But it was too late to adopt it before the end of the parliamentary session, and it did not go beyond the introduction stage.

The FPJQ wants more transparent answers to requests and for the law to impose strict deadlines, which are now almost systematically exceeded, Nguyen says.

More resources also need to be allocated to training law enforcement officials, since, he said, excessive redaction can stem as much from bad faith as from incompetence.

Nguyen does not expect an overhaul by the next provincial election, scheduled for this year.

"We would like all political parties to commit to improving the law," he said. "It's really time for this to become an election issue."

The demand isn't a journalistic whim, Nguyen says, since the public can also file ATI requests.

"The important thing is to make the task easier, to reduce the number of barriers as much as possible so that anyone can have access, for the benefit of everyone."

Éric Caire, the minister in charge of access to information and the protection of personal information, did not respond to an interview request from Radio-Canada by publication time.