By Elizabeth Tuck. This summer whilst interning with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association I spent six weeks working on the Fundamental Freedoms team. My main focus of work was around access to information and the recent changes to Ontario’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA). Access to information is a cornerstone of a functioning democracy. It is a key mechanism by which the public can hold the government accountable and it fights corruption by forcing government transparency. This year in Ontario there were major changes to the FIPPA which work to undermine government transparency and accountability and ultimately weaken the rule of law.
Changes to FIPPA
The Ontario Government’s Bill 97, Plan to Protect Ontario Act (Budget Measures), 2026 was passed in April 2026. This bill amended a number of pieces of legislation including, notably, FIPPA.The most concerning amendments result in the exclusion of a wide range of records of the Premier, ministers, parliamentary assistants, and their offices. The types of excluded records include emails, call logs, documents, and any other records. Additionally, the changes to the legislation have retroactive effect, meaning that freedom of information requests that were filed prior to the legislative amendments are still subject to the new legislation.[1]
Additionally troubling, the amendments are considered to have come into force on January 1, 1988 (i.e., the date that FIPPA legislation first came into force in Ontario). This means that even though the amendments came into force in 2026, every record beginning on January 1, 1988 is captured under the legislation. These changes are devastating and extremely weaken the access to information regime. Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner, Patricia Kosseim, was clear that the changes to FIPPAundermine government accountability, public trust, and the role of the commission: “by changing the law retroactively, the government’s message is plain: if oversight bodies get in the way, just change the rules.”[2]
Access to Information in Ontario
The changes to FIPPA are truly a huge blow to government transparency in Ontario. Ontario is no stranger to the power that freedom of information requests can have on exposing government corruption and wrongdoing. It was thanks to freedom of information requests that the public learned substantial information about corruption in the Ford Government’s handling of the Greenbelt, including the land swap scandal.[3] The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner also raised flags about the Ontario Government’s malpractices concerning the deletion of records, using personal emails to discuss government matters (and therefore circumventing FIPPA’s scope), and generally a lack of proper documentation.[4]
Access to information requests helped uncover another scandal from the Ford Government, this time in relation to the Skills Development Fund. Through access to information requests, journalists learned that the majority of the funding from the Skills Development Fund’s fifth funding round went to groups led by Ontario Progressive Conservative Party donors.[5] This also includes the revelation that the top recipient of the grant funding hosted a fundraiser for the ONPC just months before which raised $120k for the party.[6]
Democracy Requires Vigilance
From these above two examples (of which there are more!) it is not hard for one to imagine why the current Ontario Government has a vested interest in severely limiting the kind of information that, despite rightfully belonging in the public domain, is now accessible. One of the slogans of the CCLA is ‘democracy requires vigilance’ which to me means that democratic institutions will not protect themselves. Even in a democratic nation like Canada, the Ontario Government stands as a stark example of how protecting democracy requires work and dedication.
[1] Bill 97, Plan to Protect Ontario Act (Budget Measures), 2026 2nd sess, 44th parl, 2026 (assented to 24 April 2026) Available at: https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-44/session-1/bill-97?tabSelected=status; Anaïs Bussières McNicoll, “Op-Ed: Ontario’s Government Wants to Keep You in the Ark – What Are They Hiding?” (4 May 2026) Available at: https://ccla.org/fundamental-freedoms/op-ed-ontarios-government-wants-to-keep-you-in-the-dark-what-are-they-hiding/.
[2] Jessica Smith Cross and Chiarlie Pinkerton, “For Government’s Plan to Restrict Public Access to POliticans’ Documents Would ‘Gut Public Trust,’ Commissioner Warns” (13 March 2026) Available at: https://www.thetrillium.ca/news/politics/ford-government-to-restrict-public-access-to-politicians-documents-12000182.
[3] Ryan Patrick Jones, “ntario Government’s Greenbelt Land Swap Influenced b Well-Connected Developers, AG Finds” (9 August 2023) Available at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-auditor-general-greenbelt-report-1.6930390.
[4] Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, “Ontario’s Greenbelt: Access to Information and Government Transparency” (2025) Available at: https://www.ipc.on.ca/en/2024-annual-report/ontarios-greenbelt-access-information-and-government-transparency.
[5] Jack Hauen, Charlie Pinkerton, and Jessica Smith Cross, “Groups led by PC Donors Received Majority of Recent Ontario Training Funds” (20 October 2025) Available at: https://www.thetrillium.ca/news/the-trillium-investigations/groups-led-by-pc-donors-received-majority-of-recent-ontario-training-funds-11372766
[6] Ibid.