It is interesting what gets hidden in an ATIP. Usually of course you have no idea what they are hiding because the hidden information is redacted. But recently I had occasion to ask for two different ATIPs about the Abortion Rights Coalition that were about a year apart. I received some duplicate information from them. The first one contained certain redacted information that the second one did not redact.
The unredacted information revealed that the redacted info from the first ATIP, was ARCC telling their usual unrelenting falsehoods about pregnancy care centres.
This is the text that was redacted from the first ATIP from a letter from ARCC to the Minister of Health on April 4, 2018:
"...Further, it would help to dispel harmful myths about abortion and mitigate the effects of misinformation spread by anti-choice groups. Over 290 anti-choice groups exist across Canada, including about 165 “crisis pregnancy centres” (CPCs)....Most agencies have websites or do other public outreach, and all provide misinformation about abortion and work to reinforce stigma. Further, CPCs often mislead or scare women seeking abortion while advocacy groups seek to recriminalize abortion, which would violate women's charter rights."
Redacted information about CPCs
Unredacted information on CPCs
Two questions.
1) Why was this information redacted from the first ATIP? The three Information Act clauses cited don't seem pertinent (19 (1), 20 (1) (c), 20 (1) (b.1)) to the redaction. And if they should have been redacted, why weren't they in the second ATIP?
2) Were the bureaucrats embarrassed (as they should be) when they saw this disinformation about pregnancy care centres, so they redacted "all [CPCs] provide misinformation about abortion and work to reinforce stigma"?
Here is another statement from meeting notes ARCC had with MP Don Davies from July 4, 2017 that was redacted from the first ATIP, but not the second ATIP:
"...The idea is to have a central, reliable place that women can go to, mitigating the effects of misinformation provided by "crisis pregnancy centres" and anti-choice groups."
(Here's a true statement no one can argue with, and is definitely not a lie: All abortion clinics kill babies.)
Fun Fact: My first ATIP took them 442 days to process and contained 11 pages. The second one took 396 days to process and contained 20 pages and produced similar information as the first. Don't let anyone ever tell you that ATIPs are ever processed in 30 days.
19 (1) Subject
to subsection (2), the head of a government institution shall refuse
to disclose any record requested under this Part that contains
personal information.
20 (1) (c) information the
disclosure of which could reasonably be expected to result in
material financial loss or gain to, or could reasonably be expected
to prejudice the competitive position of, a third party; or
20 (1)
(b.1) information
that is supplied in confidence to a government institution by a
third party for the preparation, maintenance, testing or
implementation by the government institution of emergency
management plans within the meaning of section 2 of the Emergency
Management Act and
that concerns the vulnerability of the third party’s buildings or
other structures, its networks or systems, including its computer
or communications networks or systems, or the methods used to
protect any of those buildings, structures, networks or systems