Wednesday, September 26, 2018 - 12:30pm to Thursday, September 27, 2018 - 1:55pm
Location: 
Jackman Law Building J140

Your Right to Know: an Access to Information Workshop for Legal Research and Advocacy

Every Canadian has the right to request information from federal, provincial/territorial and municipal governments.  Access to information from our government underpins society’s most important democratic ideals, including government accountability, freedom of expression and press freedom.  Many organizations even characterize access to information as a fundamental human right.

The David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights is convening a lunchtime panel on September 26th at 12:30 - 2:00 in J140 focused on the use of ATI (Access to Information) and FOI (Freedom of Information) requests.

This moderated panel will focus on the importance and uses of ATI and FOI requests, best practices for filing such requests, and limitations/challenges with the Access to Information regime in Canada. 

A Q&A period will follow the panel.  

Note: A longer “hands-on” session will be held in the early Winter term, where law students, faculty members and other scholars can bring their draft access to information requests or research questions for assistance. Date TBD.

Panel members will include:

Dara Lambie, Legal Counsel for the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner/Ontario

Alex Luscombe, PhD student in the Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies at the University of Toronto and a Junior Fellow at Massey College, works to advance the use of FOI requests as a method of data production in the social sciences. With Kevin Walby, he has written about FOI and theory, FOI and standards of validity/reliability, FOI and comparative research, and FOI and research ethics.  

Michael Power, Toronto Lawyer and Adjunct Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, author of Halsbury’s Laws of Canada, Access to Information and Privacy and Sailing in Dangerous Waters: A Director’s Guide to Data Governance.

 

Light lunch will be provided