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Effective April 1, 2008, the Treasury Board has stated that "the requirement to update CAIRS is no longer in effect".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:
“Oh, the holiness of always being the injured party. The historically oppressed can find not only sanctity but safety in the state of victimization. When access to a better life has been denied often enough, and successfully enough, one can use the rejection as an excuse to cease all efforts. After all, one reckons, “they” don’t want me, “they” accept their own mediocrity and refuse my best, “they” don’t deserve me.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)
“Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
—Bible: New Testament, Philippians 4:6.
“There are obvious places in which government can narrow the chasm between haves and have-nots. One is the public schools, which have been seen as the great leveler, the authentic melting pot. That, today, is nonsense. In his scathing study of the nation’s public school system entitled “Savage Inequalities,” Jonathan Kozol made manifest the truth: that we have a system that discriminates against the poor in everything from class size to curriculum.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)