Editorials

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Keeping too much in camera

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 03/3/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

NEVER one to cleave to the concept of group think, Winnipeg school trustee Mike Babinsky is calling his colleagues out on their penchant for taking their public discussions to in-camera sessions. Mr. Babinsky estimates about 75 per cent of the board's business is now done beyond the prying eyes of the public, which he claims is the board's way of avoiding scrutiny.

His observations of the board's increasing use of in-camera sessions are shared by Free Press education reporter Nick Martin, who no longer routinely attends the board meetings out of futility. It is a sorry sign of disintegrating public engagement when the local newspaper concludes it is a waste of time to attend meetings of publicly elected trustees spending public funds.

But the assessment of Mr. Babinsky, a trustee for 15 years, backs up that conclusion. He says he's noticed an insidious trend at the Winnipeg school board toward stamping most topics of discussion as protected under the provincial Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA).

FIPPA has become the steel trap door that effectively shuts out the public. Personnel matters, private correspondence, issues involving individual students and negotiations of a commercial or proprietorial nature are all matters that may require protection for privacy. The Winnipeg board's procedural by-law, however, gives it overly broad discretion to decide at a meeting whether to send any matter it chooses to an in-camera discussion.

Habitual misuse of FIPPA runs close to abuse. Mr. Babinsky notes he recently asked for a summary of programs the board had funded from property taxes alone. He said he was warned by a board colleague that as the money for those programs was part of current budget deliberations, any public discussion on the matter would risk contravention of FIPPA and a possible $50,000 fine.

Mike Babinsky is not the first trustee to bemoan the school board's use of in-camera sessions. The public is not in good position to judge the legitimacy of the board's decisions to protect information under FIPPA. Mr. Babinsky should have a chat with Manitoba Ombudsman Irene Hamilton, who has the power to review the material deemed secret, and thereby challenge the basis upon which the board routinely skirts the transparency that underpins its public mandate.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 3, 2010 A12

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