Region of Peel Waives Massive Fee on FOI Request for Audio Recording of Unlawfully Closed Fluoridation Meeting

In reply to a recent FOI request sent to the Region of Peel asking for the audio recording of their unlawfully closed fluoridation meeting of Jan.21st, 2016, the Region quoted an outrageous fee estimated at over $850! 

Below is the request for a fee waiver that was sent in reply to that letter.

We are happy to report that today (Sept. 1st, 2016) we learned that the waiver has been granted… aside from shipping costs.

Perhaps the reason that they keep referring to shipping costs, even though we have specified repeatedly, from the beginning, that our preference is for electronic files conveyed to us via the Internet, is that they don’t want us to have electronic files that can be uploaded to the Fluoride Free Peel website?

**** REQUEST FOR FEE WAIVER ***

My request is for information that should, according to the Municipal Act, have been freely accessible to the public on January 21, 2016, as confirmed by the investigation that was carried out by the organization selected and paid by the Region of Peel. (I provided the investigation report to you in a previous email.)

I am requesting that the entire fee be waived, for the following reasons:

•The entire purpose of the expensive taxpayer-funded meeting was to help Councillors make a decision, and hence the meeting should have been, by law and in the interests of legitimate open democracy, open to the public. No resident, member of the public, or member of the media should have to pay for the Region’s unlawfulness.

•It was pointed out, by me, to Regional Clerk Kathryn Lockyer, as well as Regional Chair Frank Dale, David Szwarc, Carolyn Parrish (chair of the fluoridation committee that organized the meeting) and Bonnie Crombie one week before the education session took place that closing the meeting would be an obvious violation of the Municipal Act. I would be happy to forward to you with the emails that I sent to those individuals.

•Peel residents, the very people who paid for this expensive and important meeting, have already been inappropriately kept in the dark for 7 months.

•Residents, other concerned individuals and the media, by law, should have been free to not only attend the meeting, but to make audio and video recordings, and to report on the proceedings, and to follow up with the experts, the Medical Officer of Health and our Councillors about the information provided. This is how things work in a true open democracy. In open meetings the public records as they wish, rather than having to request and pay for a recording from the Region 7 months later. I, and many others, did not even know that an audio file existed until the investigation report was released.

•Because the meeting was closed, the public and media will never be able to see with our own eyes what took place at this meeting.

•Every possible effort should now be made to salvage this distressing disruption in democratic governance and the free flow of information.

•In the interests of transparency and legitimate open democracy, the public should now have free and easy access to all of the information and opinions that were presented to Council, especially given that this information was provided specifically for the purpose of helping Council to make a decision that directly affects the health and well-being of Peel residents.

•Dissemination of the requested information will benefit public education, public health and public safety.

•If I have access to the requested information and share it widely as I intend to do, then it will likely avoid having many other people submit similar requests in the future, and will therefore save everyone time, money and expense.

•The Region must not profit in any way from its unlawfulness.”

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