{"id":14938,"date":"2017-04-30T17:06:59","date_gmt":"2017-04-30T21:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/caj.ca\/?p=14938"},"modified":"2022-10-18T17:08:13","modified_gmt":"2022-10-18T21:08:13","slug":"congratulations-to-ontarios-office-of-the-fire-marshal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/caj.ca\/fr\/congratulations-to-ontarios-office-of-the-fire-marshal\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Congratulations’ to Ontario’s Office of the Fire Marshal!"},"content":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA, April 30, 2017 \/CNW\/ \u2013 The most secretive government department in Canada, as \u201chonoured\u201d by the Canadian Association of Journalists at its annual awards gala at the Sheraton Ottawa Hotel on April 29, is Ontario\u2019s Office of the Fire Marshal.<\/span><\/p>\n

The winning nomination for this year\u2019s Code of Silence award came from Larry Cornies of the London Free Press, whose <\/span>reporting<\/span><\/a> on the aftermath of a costly fire, and a lack of transparency on the part of the London Fire Department and provincial Fire Marshal\u2019s office, demonstrated a clear pattern of secrecy.<\/span><\/p>\n

After a fire on June 30, 2016, which cost $1.5 million and destroyed a dozen businesses, Cornies inquired about the department\u2019s response time. City council had earlier endorsed a goal of responding to fires within four minutes. The department referred all questions to the Fire Marshal\u2019s office. No one would offer the data, which would have been available.<\/span><\/p>\n

A mere 249 days later, after two appeals through freedom-of-information laws, the OFM finally revealed the response time: seven minutes and 11 seconds.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe eight-month-long obfuscation raises the question of how city councillors in Ontario are supposed to evaluate the performance and effectiveness of the fire departments accountable to them when such basic information is suppressed,\u201d Cornies wrote in his nomination. \u201cThe OFM operates within a culture of secrecy\u2014a culture that reaches into municipal departments that should instead be responsive to city councils and the citizens they serve.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd all this under the nose of a provincial government that prides itself on having adopted \u2018open government\u2019 principles.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Needless to say, the CAJ agrees.<\/span><\/p>\n

We also awarded an honourable mention to the National Energy Board, which hired a vice-president of transparency and strategic engagement who, soon after taking the job, decided to \u201cwarn employees that they were under investigation by a private security firm for speaking to reporters.\u201d That investigation was based on a \u201cpreliminary assessment\u201d by the firm. When National Observer\u2019s Mike De Souza, the NEB\u2019s nominator, filed an access-to-information request for that report, the NEB told him there was no record of such an assessment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, we placed the Trudeau government on notice. After promising substantive\u2014and necessary\u2014access-to-information reform during the last campaign, the government has since backed away from any timelines at all on producing real results. \u201cThe Liberals did everything they could to match the Harper government\u2019s record on this file,\u201d said CAJ President Nick Taylor-Vaisey. \u201cThey fell a little short this year, but we have a good feeling about next year.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The CAJ is Canada\u2019s largest national professional organization for journalists from all media, representing nearly 600 members across the country. The CAJ\u2019s primary roles are to provide high-quality professional development for its members and public-interest advocacy.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

For further information:<\/span><\/p>\n

Nick Taylor-Vaisey, CAJ president \u2013 647-968-2393 cell, nick@caj.ca<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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