I hope you have enjoyed taking a look back at the stories that spurred the most interest in 2012

Over the past couple of days I have been looking back at the stories / blog posts from 2012 that held the most interests -- the ones which were read the most.

Today is the final look back at 2012, and the #1 post which went online on May 4th

"David Loukidelis described what he called ... an unacceptable pattern of government-wide failure to respond to access requests in as timely a fashion as it should.”

This post started off saying:

The BC government today announced that Deputy Attorney General David Loukidelis will be leaving the government.  Loukidelis became the Deputy AG in January 2010 following a position as the Commissioner of the Freedom of Information Office.

A brief story in the Vancouver Sun this afternoon noted:
The announcement was made in an internal note sent Friday by John Dyble, deputy minister to Premier Christy Clark.

It’s in his role as the Freedom of Information Commissioner that David Loukidelis made news that many have likely forgotten.

For example someone made a request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to the Royal B.C. Museum for a copy of the draft report, Loukidelis had to beg the government for more money to argue the case in court.

Writer Bill Tieleman, in a Strategic Thoughts piece from May 2004 asked:
What kind of independence does the Freedom of Information Commissioner have when he has to beg the Finance Committee for line item approval for specific investigations and legal opinions? The Campbell government has reduced an independent officer of the legislature to little more than a minor bureaucrat in one of many government ministries.

You can read the rest of this post by CLICKING HERE

Just as a follow-up, and in case you are wondering about the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, here is information directly from their website:

Established in 1993, the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner provides independent oversight and enforcement of B.C.'s access and privacy laws, including:

• The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act ("FIPPA"), which applies to over 2,900 "public bodies" including ministries, local governments, schools, crown corporations, hospitals, municipal police forces, and more;
• The Personal Information Protection Act ("PIPA"), which applies to over 300,000 private sector "organizations" including businesses, charities, associations, trade unions and trusts.

Elizabeth Denham is B.C.'s current Information and Privacy Commissioner.

The Commissioner has the power to:

1. Investigate, mediate and resolve appeals concerning access to information disputes, including issuing binding orders; 
2. Investigate and resolve privacy complaints; 
3. Initiate Commissioner-led investigations and audits of public bodies or organizations, if there are reasonable grounds of non-compliance or if it is in the public interest;
4. Comment on the access and privacy implications of proposed legislation, programs or policies; 
5. Comment on the privacy implications of new technologies and/or data matching schemes;
6. Conduct research into anything affecting access and privacy rights; and
7. Educate and inform the public about their access and privacy rights and the relevant laws.

If you would like tyo know recent news and current information about activities of the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner can be found by CLICKING HERE

That's all for this week, I hope you have enjoyed taking a look back at the stories that spurred the most interest in 2012.

I'm Alan Forseth in Kamloops, with the thoughts of one conservative.  Monday we start fresh -- I'll see you then.