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Brokering Access

Brokering Access

Power, Politics, and Freedom of Information Process in Canada

Edited by Mike Larsen and Kevin Walby

Published by: University of British Columbia Press

Imprint: UBC Press

400 Pages, 152.00 × 229.00 mm

Paperback
9780774823234
Published: January 2013

£28.99

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Hardcover
9780774823227
Published: August 2012

£79.00

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Description
Contents
Authors

Is the business of public officials any of the public's business? Most Canadians would argue that it is – that we citizens are entitled to enquire and get answers about our government's actions. Yet, on a practical level, there still exists a struggle between the public's quest for accountability and the government's culture of secrecy.

Drawing together the unique perspectives of social scientists, journalists, and access to information (ATI) advocates, Brokering Access explores the history of ATI law and supplies multiple examples of its contemporary application at the federal, provincial, and municipal levels. From restrictions to access of airport security data post-9/11 to censorship under the Access to Information Act to the difficulties of obtaining details on streetscape video surveillance, this book reveals the legal and bureaucratic obstacles citizens face when trying to access government information.

Foreword / Ann Cavoukian

Introduction: On the Politics of Access to Information / Mike Larsen and Kevin Walby

Part 1: Access to Information, Past and Present

1 Sustaining Secrecy: Executive Branch Resistance to Access to Information in Canada / Ann Rees

2 Access Regimes: Provincial Freedom of Information Law across Canada / Gary Dickson

Part 2: Behind Closed Doors -- Security and Information Control

3 Flying the Secret Skies: Difficulties in Obtaining Data on Canadian Airport Security Screening Tests Following 9/11 / Jim Bronskill

4 Access to Information in an Age of Intelligencized Governmentality / Willem de Lint and Reem Bahdi

5 Accessing Dirty Data: Methodological Strategies for Social Problems Research / Yavar Hameed and Jeff Monaghan

Part 3: Access to Information and Critical Research Strategies

6 The Freedom of Information Act as a Methodological Tool: Suing the Government for Data / Matthew G. Yeager

7 "He who controls the present, controls the past": The Canadian Security State's Imperfect Censorship under the Access to Information Act / Steve Hewitt

8 Behind the Blue Line: Using ATI in Researching the Policing of Aboriginal Activism / Tia Dafnos

9 Accessing the State of Imprisonment in Canada: Information Barriers and Negotiation Strategies
/ Justin Piché

10 Accessing Information on Streetscape Video Surveillance in Canada / Sean P. Hier

Part 4: Dispatches from the Fourth Estate -- Access to Information and Investigative Journalism

11 Access, Administration, and Democratic Intent / Fred Vallance-Jones

12 Access to Information: The Frustrations -- and the Hope / David McKie

13 The Quest for Electronic Data: Where Alice Meets Monty Python Meets Colonel Jessep / Jim Rankin

Postscript / Suzanne Legault

Index

Mike Larsen is an instructor in the Criminology Department of Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Kevin Walby is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Victoria.

Contributors: Reem Bahdi, Jim Bronskill, Ann Cavoukian, Tia Dafnos, Willem de Lint, Gary Dickson, Yavar Hameed, Steve Hewitt, Sean P. Hier, Suzanne Legault, David McKie, Jeffrey Monaghan, Justin Piché, Jim Rankin, Ann Rees, Fred Vallance-Jones, and Matthew G. Yeager