CBC misleading on CAIRS

I have nothing against the way the CBC reports stuff, except what common sense point to as plain wrong. Reporting what you want to say instead of what actually happened is quite an art. However, this piece of reporting takes the biscuit! The title itself is ambiguous, suggesting that the Government has actually SHUT the CAIRS database. The article continues:

The federal Conservatives have quietly killed an access to information registry used by journalists, experts and the public that users say helped hold the government accountable.

Although searching other people's research efforts can help people find documents, I do not see how keeping a database of requests for information is any more transparent than the actual acts allowing access to the information in question.

But did the government actually kill the database? Certainly not!

Last week, a notice to civil servants from Treasury Board stated that effective April 1, "the requirement to update CAIRS is no longer in effect."

What's there remains there. But civil servants will have more time to dedicate to actually serving the public rather than playing around with gimmicks. Of course the CBC distorts reality in its first lines in order to mask the truth.

They interview and quote their own journalist, David McKie, who also runs onlinedemocracy.ca, an information endeavor I actually commend. However, on the website itself the following "limitation" is posted:

Some large departments do not enter all requests which they have received into CAIRS. Consequently you should not assume that this is a comprehensive list of federal ATIA requests.

CAIRS is already incomplete. It will just get less updates, but the information will still be freely available. So why all the fuss?

Now, users mine the database to do statistical studies, fine tune phrasing on new requests and discover obscure documents — often using the information against the government.

What difference does it make for the CBC how the information is used? The info will still be publicly available, the various scandal-hunters will however have to toil a little longer and do a little more research to get their info. Maybe they'll also have time to think whether their story is actually a story.

The CBC should whine less about useless gimmicks and actually push for electronic indexing of all documents that are covered by the Access to Information legislation. And, if they're so concerned, get off their butt and create a database themselves.