ATIP takes 502 days and yields 9 pages of information

This ATIP to Health Canada took 502 days to respond to, yielded exactly 9 pages of so-called information, from a total document count of 285 pages. 

It is hard to comprehend how it can take so long to respond to an ATIP, when you release virtually no information.

Page 2-247 and 256-285 were all redacted (i.e. all subject to solicitor-client privilege)

Page 1 Someone contacts Health Canada to ask about getting in touch with Dying with Dignity. Which is pretty funny. As I have shown many times before, DWDC has a very cozy relationship with Health Canada. The fact that someone would actually contact Health Canada to ask for an interview with DWDC tells me that the lines are definitely blurred between these two entities.

From: Health Media

Sent: 2024-08-09 1:57 PM

To: XXXXXXXXX

Subject: RE: Interview with  XXXXXXXXX

Categories: Referred

Hi  XXXXXXXXX,

Dying with Dignity is a charitable organization and is not affiliated with Health Canada. I’m afraid we wouldn’t be able to assist.

Their phone number is: 1-800-495-6156

Thanks,

Mark Johnson

Media Relations | Relations avec les medias

Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada

Government of Canada 

media@hc-sc.ac.ca | Tel: 613-957-2983

From: XXXXXXXXX

Sent: Friday, August 9, 2024 1:48 PM

To: HEALTH MEDIA SANTE (HC/SC)

Good day!

I'm just forwarding over this email I sent to the Dying with Dignity media line since I have not heard back yet.

I'm hoping we can get in contact with XXXXXXXXX  this interview.

Let me know if she is available.

Thank you,

From: XXXXXXXXX

Sent Friday August 9, 2024 8:20 AM

To: media@dyingwithdignity.ca 

Subject: Interview Request with XXXXXXXXX

Good Morning! I hope this email finds you well.

I'm XXXXXXXXX. I'm reaching out to see if we can book an interview with XXXXXXXXX. We are interested in talking about XXXXXXXXX. The interview will be live with XXXXXXXXX for 8-10 minutes. The time slot we are hoping to fill is 10:30am MDT (9:30am PDT). Let me know if that works for her schedule. Thanks and talk soon!

248-255 - yields some complaints from DWDC about Health Canada's survey on advance directives not being accessible outside of Canada. 

And this. Helen Long offers to give names of people to participate in the consultations:

I understand from the Minister's announcement that there will be a variety of ways to engage in the advance request consultations, including roundtables. As always, it is important to get the perspectives of those with lived experience. To that end, I wondered if you were looking for individuals who do have lived experience and might be able to contribute to this discussion? Let me know and if there is an opportunity, I would be happy to provide a list of individuals who could participate.

Does Health Canada take her up on this offer? There is no indication that they do. But if they did, that would certainly skew the results of the consultations.