Conscience Project
www.consciencelaws.org
NEWS RELEASE
ADVISORY BOARD
Janet Ajzenstat, BA, MA, PhD
Dept. of Political Science,
McMaster University,
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Dr. Shahid Athar, MD
Clinical Associate Professor
of Medicine & Endocrinology,
Indiana School of Medicine,
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
J. Budziszewski, PhD
Associate Professor
Departments of
Government & Philosophy,
University of Texas,
Austin, Texas, USA
Dr. John Fleming,
BA, ThL (Hons), PhD
Director, Southern Cross
Bioethics Institute,
Adelaide, Australia
Dr. Henk Jochemsen, PhD
Director, Lindeboom Institute,
Center for Medical Ethics,
Amsterdam, Netherlands
David Novak, AB, MHL, PhD
Chair of Jewish Studies,
University of Toronto,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Lynn D. Wardle, JD
Professor of Law,
J. Reuben Clark Law School,
Brigham Young University,
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
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PROJECT TEAM
Sean Murphy
Administrator
Michael Markwick
Human Rights Specialist
22 April, 2002
For Immediate Release
Stonewalling Leads to Call for New Freedom of Information Law
An Albertan writes to a professional organization with concerns about its policies on civil rights and public health issues. She gets no response.
Registered professionals in Alberta, worried about policies that could cost them their jobs, send letters to their licensing authority. Their letters are ignored.
What can these people do in the face of bureaucratic stonewalling? At the moment, not much.
That will change if an Alberta legislative committee agrees with a submission by the Protection of Conscience Project. The Project wants the province’s Freedom of Information Act regulations amended so that the Act will apply to self-governing professions like the Alberta College of Pharmacists.
"Stonewalling by the Alberta College of Pharmacists led to the submission," said Administrator Sean Murphy. "I couldn’t get even the courtesy of an acknowledgement, despite repeated requests. I heard from a private citizen and some pharmacists who had the same problem."
"I had successfully used British Columbia’s Freedom of Information Act to get information from the College of Pharmacists of British Columbia in similar circumstances, so I sent an access request to the Alberta College. It was rejected, because self-governing professions in Alberta aren’t subject to the province’s freedom of information law. The Project submission argues that it’s time to change the law."
People who want Alberta’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act updated can send letters and submissions to the legislative committee in Edmonton until 10 May, 2002. See the Protection of Conscience Project brief online
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