Newfoundland and Labrador information commissioner Ed Ring is welcoming a court case that will settle once and for all a dispute with the provincial government over access to government records.
The provincial government is insisting Ring shouldn’t have access to documents as part of his review under the province’s open records law. That law currently gives Ring the powers of a commissioner under the public inquiries act to compel the delivery of any and all documents he deems relevant to discharging his responsibilities.
Now a judge will get to sort it out.
Of course, those of us who know Ed Ring personally wouldn’t expect anything from him but exactly this thoughtful and responsible discharge of his duties as set out by law.
Let’s just hope that if the judge sides with Ring, the powers that be don’t decide Ring must be replaced with someone considerably more pliable. it would be a shame that doing his job and speaking his mind wound up being a case of the guy signing the death warrant for his own job.
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