Canada

Archive: [ https://archive.is/wJs2V ]

National Defence is continuing to ignore requests to release government records as required under law and in the process is undermining a watchdog agency that reports to parliament, members of Parliament have heard.

The House of Commons Committee on National Defence is conducting hearings into the lack of openness and transparency within the department and the Canadian military. So far it has heard that National Defence violates the law in almost 40 per cent of the requests it receives to produce records under the Access to Information Act.

In an increasing number of cases, the department is claiming that records don’t exist, the committee heard.

At times such responses strain credibility. For instance, National Defence claimed not a single document or any information whatsoever was sent to Anita Anand, then the defence minister, throughout the four-month period covering the selection and announcement of the F-35 fighter jet in a $19-billion procurement deal.