Federal Court judge orders government to release pages of docs on Senate scandal
OTTAWA — A Federal Court judge has ordered the central bureaucracy that serves the prime minister and cabinet to partially release pages of information on four senators at the heart of the 2013 Senate spending scandal, ruling they were improperly withheld.
Justice James O’Reilly ruled parts of the documents — including a memo Canada’s top bureaucrat wrote to then-prime minister Stephen Harper — were wrongly classified as sensitive legal or ministerial advice, making them exempt from public release under the federal access to information law.
O’Reilly also agreed that portions of the documents related to senators Mike Duffy, Patrick Brazeau, Pamela Wallin and former senator Mac Harb should remain out of public view — although those details of the written ruling were among large swaths that remained redacted in order to give the government a chance to appeal.
Information commissioner Suzanne Legault said the office is considering whether to appeal any aspects of the decision. The Prime Minister’s Office deferred comment to the Privy Council Office.