So the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting (let’s just call them ‘Friends’) are a little upset with us for upturning some of their financial dealings with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). We sort of expected that.

In their response we were delighted to read that contrary what we had been told by the CBC, “All members of the Friends' Steering Committee gave explicit written permission to the CBC to release the requested information.”

This new information made our day, as we therefore expect the CBC to provide us with the 85 redacted pages from the Access to Information (ATI) documents.

We were quick to get on the phone with the CBC’s ATI department today to find out if we had been incorrectly informed, or to find out when we can receive the redacted information.

The CBC assured us that, “Names not included in the received documents did not give clear consent for disclosure.” In short, the CBC required explicit consent to disclose these people’s financial dealings, and did not receive it from everyone, contrary to what our Friends said. At least, the CBC doesn’t think that it did.

In short, somebody has some splainin’ to do. There are therefore three foreseen possibilities:

1)   As Friends claim, they all did give consent, but the CBC lost the letters and will provide us with the 85 pages that are currently redacted;

2)   As Friends’ claim, they all did give consent, but four of the letters were simultaneously lost in the mail. They can easily reprint the letters and send them to the CBC so that they can provide us with the information that is currently blanked-out; or

3)   If in fact consent was not given – which would be somewhat at odds with statements on the Friends’ website – then they surely won’t want to be spreading terminological inexactitudes and will wish to rectify this. That would happen by either explaining why they continue to refuse consent, or rectify this by finally giving it. 

When we asked the CBC about the one sample letter of consent provided by the Friends, the CBC responded that there was confusion surrounding another Ian Morrison by the same name, and promised to promptly investigate the matter.

We really hate to come between friends, but we love Access to Information. The CBC and the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting need to work this consent thing out and provide the missing 85 pages.