A seminar -- to be held at Westin Hotel, Ottawa on Sept. 8 -- will look at the issues driving freedom of information in Canada. There will be a diversity of expert speakers from oversight offices, the private and the federal and provincial levels, bringing users and the access community together and creating an opportunity for dialogue and exchange between the speakers and the delegates. Speakers will explore media issues involving both federal and provincial access to information laws and practices and the extension of the Act to include 10 Crown Corporations while others will examine the efficacy of the law and where changes are needed.
Target audiences for this event are federal and provincial access to information commissioners and their staffs, policy makers, departmental offices within the public service, and users of access laws, including business, associations and the media.
Speakers include:
- John Reid, Information Commissioner of Canada
- Colonel Michel Drapeau, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa Conference Chair
- Ann Kothawala, president, Canadian Newspaper Association
- Patrick Bourke, Head of Access to Information Central Clearing House, Department for Constitutional Affairs, UK
- Alasdair Roberts, Associate Professor of Public Administration, Director, Campbell Public Affairs Institute, Syracuse University
- Brian Beamish, Assistant Commissioner, Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, Ontario
- Marilyn Mun, Director, FOIP, Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta
- Peter Bower, Executive Director, Access &Privacy, Ombudsman Manitoba
- Daniel Leblanc, Journalist, Globe and Mail
- David Brown, Director, Public Policy Forum.
