A lawyer for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation is pressuring the Trudeau government to release information about who stayed in a $6000-per-night hotel suite during a trip to England.
The organization said on Wednesday that a lawyer representing them appealed to Canada’s Information Commissioner, hoping to compel the Trudeau government to share information that it has redacted multiple times since October.
“Prime Minister Justin Trudeau needs to come clean and tell taxpayers who stayed in the River Suite,” said federation director Franco Terrazzano. “You don’t get to be prime minister and hide how you spend our tax dollars.”
Access-to-information requests are questions that anybody can submit to the government, and, within reasonable grounds, expect a response.
The system is designed to increase the transparency of government, letting people hold their leaders accountable in ways that promote best-behaviour and strengthen decision making.
Since last fall, the Toronto Sun and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) filed access-to-information requests about the government’s use of $6,000-per-night tax dollars on a hotel room in London. Neither the Sun nor the CTF has received a straightforward answer.
The government redacted its response to the CTF, saying the request cannot be fulfilled because of security and personal-information concerns.
The CTF challenged that claim.
A lawyer representing the CTF appealed to Canada’s Information Commissioner because it is essentially a “referee”, tasked with ensuring all requests are completed fairly.
