Friday, June 3, 2022

$21MILLION & A 65 YEAR WAIT

 A researcher seeking records about an RCMP investigation from Canada's national archives was told it would cost the government more than $21 million to process his request under the Access to Information Act.

The man filed an access request with Library and Archives Canada in January upon learning of another applicant's struggle to obtain the large cache of records from a two-decade-old RCMP corruption probe.

Library and Archives cited the multimillion-dollar processing cost in trying to persuade the federal information ombudsman to allow the latest request to be dismissed because it was vexatious or made in bad faith.

In April, information commissioner Caroline Maynard refused permission and, as a result, Library and Archives is now processing the man's access request — although it says up to 65 years will be needed to do so.

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