Dalhousie Law Journal Volume 31 Issue 2 Article 4 10-1-2008 Something to Talk About: Is There a Charter Right to Access Government Information? Vincent Kazmierski Carleton University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.schulichlaw.dal.ca/dlj Part of the Constitutional Law Commons Recommended Citation Vincent Kazmierski, "Something to Talk About: Is There a Charter Right to Access Government Information?" (2008) 31:2 Dal LJ 351. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Schulich Law Scholars. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dalhousie Law Journal by an authorized editor of Schulich Law Scholars. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Vincent Kazmierski* Something to Talk About: Is There a Charter Right to Access Government Information? Can sections 2(b) and 3 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms be interpreted to protect a constitutional right of access to government information? The author argues that the constitutional principle of democracy provides a foundation for judicial recognition of such a constitutional right of access even though the inclusion of an explicit right to access to government information was rejected during the process of drafting the Charter Given that the Supreme Court of Canada's section 2(b) and 3 jurisprudence has been informed by the principle of democracy, the application of the principle may now guide the Court to include protection of access to government information in its evolving interpretation of those. Charter rights. Finally, a hypothetical case is considered in order to outline ways in which a constitutional right to access may be justifiably limited.