ipc1

From the very start of our nightmare, I began to document the issues, the facts and the players. The municipality of the City of Greater Sudbury (home of Rick Bartolucci, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and Chair of Premier of Ontario McGuinty's Cabinet) refused to answer even the most simple "yes or no" question and forced me to do EVERYTHING via the Freedom of Information (FOI) process.

The City Clerk ("now retired") had released a great deal of very damaging information to me long before the municipality's legal department figured out what I was documenting. During one visit to the City Clerk's office, I had actually overheard a conversation between the City Clerk and a subordinate discussing "special procedures and documentation" for when I came to their office (so much for treating everyone equally under the law!). I immediately filed a complaint with the Information and Privacy Commission (IPC). I had done over 40 or so FOI requests over a 2 year period... and many of these requests... after the legal department for the municipality became involved... were forced to the appeals process as the municipality attempted to prevent the release of ALL further information!

Reasons provided by the municipality ranged from "solicitor-client privilege" - EVEN WHEN NO ATTORNEY WAS ON THE EMAIL DISTRIBUTION LIST - to "economic and other interests" and ultimately... as I kept pushing for the release of the information... to "frivolous and vexatious" when nothing else applied as "an option for refusing to release".

The municipality, in my opinion, lied to the IPC in the appeals process. I had provided the IPC with plenty of very damaging information, however, and I suspect their "ruling" in favor of no further information release was also due to the role of the Attorney General of Ontario, John Gerretsen, the very man, in my opinion, at the very center of this building scandal given he was head of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing when the Professional Engineers of Ontario wrote their very incriminating "warning letter"!!!

Note: As Attorney General of Ontario, John Gerretsen now oversaw pretty well all tribunals in Ontario - including the Information and Privacy (IPC) tribunal which was responsible for determining what would or would not be released to me via Freedom of Information (FOI) and/or IPC appeals - certainly, in my opinion, a MAJOR conflict of interest for the IPC!!!