The Coordination of Access to Information Requests System, also known as CAIRS, was a database of freedom of information requests made to the federal government of Canada under the Access to Information Act. It was operated by the Department of Public Works and Government Services. It was created in 1989 to internally track requests, and eventually allowed for access to previously filed requests, previously released documents, and then current requests. By 2008, millions of documents are available through CAIRS. In 2001, Public Works spent C$166,000 upgrading the system.
Effective April 1, 2008, the Treasury Board has stated that "the requirement to update CAIRS is no longer in effect". Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper explained this decision as a result of CAIRS being "deemed expensive, deemed to slow down the access to information." Treasury Board President Vic Toews described the system as a tool used to inhibit freedom of information:
"If anyone made a request that was considered sensitive, the request was shipped to the appropriate Liberal minister. At that point the Liberal minister would manage, control or delay the request. That was the purpose of the system. That is a pretty convenient system the Liberals had, but it is not one that the government will continue with."
In response, Liberal Leader of the Opposition Stéphane Dion described Harper's government as "the most secretive government in the history of our country."
While the government cited Alastair Roberts, a Syracuse University political scientist, as a critic of CAIRS, Roberts publicly commented that he was not in favour of shutting down the system, saying "They really don't care what I think about CAIRS or any other aspect of ATI ...f they did they would have taken my advice about CAIRS a few years ago when I said they ought to switch on the capacity to make the entire thing publicly accessible."
Famous quotes containing the words access, information, requests and/or system:
“Whilst the rights of all as persons are equal, in virtue of their access to reason, their rights in property are very unequal. One man owns his clothes, and another owns a country.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The real, then, is that which, sooner or later, information and reasoning would finally result in, and which is therefore independent of the vagaries of me and you. Thus, the very origin of the conception of reality shows that this conception essentially involves the notion of a COMMUNITY, without definite limits, and capable of a definite increase of knowledge.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)
“I haven’t seen so much tippy-toeing around since the last time I went to the ballet. When members of the arts community were asked this week about one of their biggest benefactors, Philip Morris, and its requests that they lobby the New York City Council on the company’s behalf, the pas de deux of self- justification was so painstakingly choreographed that it constituted a performance all by itself.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“It would be enough for me to have the system of a jury of twelve versus the system of one judge as a basis for preferring the U.S. to the Soviet Union.... I would prefer the country you can leave to the country you cannot.”
—Joseph Brodsky (b. 1940)