CAIRS – Coordination of Access to Information Request System
Posted by aonomus on May 5, 2008
So for those of you that don’t follow the news too closely, the PM of Canada has shutdown a important database that was designed and implemented to allow the government to be transparent. The basis of CAIRS is that it tracks who searches for what (by department, or if it was a public request). As of April 1st departments didn’t have to update the database, and its just another drop in the bucket towards removing government accountability.
Consider signing the petitions after reading the news articles and understanding what it is at work.
Links
- http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080503/ati_registry_080503/20080503?hub=Politics
- http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080505.wqp_foi0505/BNStory/National/home
- http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/05/02/cairs.html
- http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/saveCAIRS/index.html
UPDATE: The Globe & Mail published a news article saying that the Commissioner’s Office (think independent oversight) was not notified to the government’s action of stopping monthly updates of the CAIRS database. The independent oversight provided by the Commissioner’s Office is supposed to provide an objective view on decisions like these.
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