Law Times

Page 6 July 21, 2014 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com COMMENT Transparency call at LAO ntario should make openness the norm and secrecy the exception." Those are the words from the province's open govern- ment engagement team report earlier this year. As Law Times reports on page 5 this week, it seems organizations such as Le- gal Aid Ontario have some work to do in becoming more transparent. Since becoming premier, Kathleen Wynne has touted transparen- cy with her bid to make more government information, particularly data, easily available to the public. But according to Osgoode Hall Law School Prof . Sean Rehaag, LAO has been failing in this regard. He re- signed from its immigration and refugee law advisory committee re- cently over concerns about its reluctance to release information that would help his research on immigration and refugee issues. While LAO notes it has responded positively to several of his freedom of in- formation requests, his resignation letter suggests he has had difficul- ty getting information related to quality of counsel and other matters. There's no doubt organizations like LAO have to be sensitive in the information they release given the clients they serve and the sensitivity of communications related to legal matters. But accord- ing to Rehaag's resignation letter, LAO has used s. 90 of the Legal Aid Services Act to justify its refusals. That section essentially pre- cludes the disclosure by virtually anyone associated with LAO of "any information or material furnished to or received by him or her in the course of his or her duties or in the provision of legal aid services" unless authorized by the organization. Further, Rehaag suggests LAO has interpreted s. 13 of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act that allows organizations to refuse to disclose advice as meaning it can't release any information New front in marijuana wars as feds battle war vets he departmental memo has been sitting on Veterans Affairs Minister Julian Fantino's desk for a month now. He has to make a decision on medi- cal marijuana. He must decide whether to cut back on the amount of marijuana injured war veterans should be able to get from the government and how much they should have to pay for it. Do they need as much as 10 grams a day of the drug, which is what doctors talk about, and is $10 a gram too much to have to pay? Right now, hundreds of veterans are getting five grams a day and paying $9 a gram. That's about half the price rec- reational marijuana users are paying on the street. The statistical evidence is that few veterans use it for recreational purposes. Instead, in many cases it's about trying to kill that numbing, debilitating pain that has been with them every day of their lives since they came back to Canada. There's still no decision from Fan- tino. The memo sits silently on his desk while the anger among veterans, par- ticularly the younger ones who fought in our more recent wars, grows. Fantino is by no means the most beloved of veterans affairs ministers we've had, especially after he closed eight regional offices across Canada in February. It doesn't matter that doc- tors tell us that particularly for veterans of wars in Af- ghanistan and the former Yugoslavia, marijuana is an acceptable way to numb the pain they're living with every day of their lives. But the issue isn't an easy one for Fan- tino. If it was only up to him, he might just side with the war veterans. He's got his whole Conservative party against him, however. Fantino's boss, Prime Minister Ste- phen Harper, and his ministers have launched a marijuana war against Lib- eral Leader Justin Trudeau, who speaks openly of legalized, government-con- trolled marijuana for Canadians. So how can Harper on the one hand slam Trudeau for wanting to legal- ize marijuana while the government is supporting war veterans with ever- increasing amounts of the drug at more rea sonable prices? That sort of contradiction won't win the Conservatives the next federal election. But is that contradiction any better than Harper effu- sively praising the Canadian military for going off to war but failing to take proper care of the soldiers when they come back? For Harper, marijuana is a drug and using it is a crime the government must stop. So using it for medical purposes, even for war vet- erans, doesn't cut much cloth with him. He sees marijuana as a gateway drug leading to other, stronger substances. He's using every chance he gets to por- tray Trudeau as a marijuana pusher who's trying to corrupt our children. There's no scientific evidence, by the way, that marijuana leads to other drugs such as alcohol. In fact, there's evidence to the contrary. And since when did Trudeau say he wants to give marijuana to kids? Some Conservatives have gone too far for their own good in the war on drugs. Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant had an off beat prescription for war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress dis- order. She said they have to overcome "the stress within themselves." Instead, the veterans marched to Parliament and on to her office. Some veterans are planning to launch their own counterattack against the Harper government by taking it to court for backing down on the care and help it had promised them before they went off to war for Canada. It's difficult to imagine a court ruling that says the law entitles soldiers to get marijuana from the government if they ask for it. But what if a doctor prescribes it as the best medicine for them? Can the federal government deny returning war veterans medicine that would cure what ails them or at least make their lives more tolerable? It's quite possible we'll see a court decision on those sorts of issues as the marijuana wars continue. LT Richard Cleroux is a freelance reporter and columnist on Parliament Hill. His e-mail address is richardcleroux@rogers. com. ©2014 Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or stored in a retrieval system without written per- mission. The opinions expressed in articles are not necessarily those of the publisher. Information presented is compiled from sources believed to be accurate, however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. 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"A key principle of open government is the concept of open by default, which means that informa- tion and data are presumed to be open to pub- lic scrutiny unless there is a compelling reason for them to remain unpublished," it wrote. So while LAO may have justification to refuse in specific circumstances, Rehaag's situation sug- gests there's room for it to find ways to make in- formation available whether in full, partial or redacted form. What we probably need is reform to our freedom of information laws to clarify the rules around releasing information and make the presumption of openness a legislated duty. — Glenn Kauth The Hill Richard Cleroux T " O

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