June 2, 2003
Rita Reynolds, the City of Toronto’s Director of Corporate Access and Privacy for the last twelve years, was fired on May 28th.
Responsible for handling "freedom of information" (FOI) requests, she frequently had to fight with senior bureaucrats to obtain information requested by citizens under the FOI Act, and often encountered criticism and hostility for releasing information that damaged or embarrassed colleagues who significantly outranked her. Nonetheless, Rita always knew who she worked for, and was willing to take the flak in order to carry out her responsibilities to the public, and to the regulations governing her office and activities.
In my March 17th, 2003 column "Wild cards?" I discussed the disappearance of documents from her office that related to the Union Station fiasco, having this to say: "Interestingly, according to Toronto Star reporter Jack Lakey, Rita Reynolds ‘has come under intense criticism from Chief Administrative Officer Shirley Hoy, and Corporate Services Commissioner Joan Anderton, among others, for failing to be a ‘team player,’ and for not withholding information (emphasis added) that would embarrass the city and its top bureaucrats…. It is disturbing that a break-in, and the theft of confidential documents pertaining to possible municipal corruption, has occurred sometime after the commencement of a judicial inquiry into just such issues."
Referring to the unsuccessful efforts made by Mayor Lastman to get rid of the City Auditor, I made a pitch for support of the valiant Ms. Reynolds as follows: "It is clear to me that in her own way, Rita Reynolds is as vital to the integrity of the City as Jeffrey Griffiths. Her personal qualities of fairness and firmness in the exercise of her duties comprise an asset to the maintenance of public confidence in our municipal level of government. I think it is important to show support for her, and I urge you all to contact your local councillor, and the Mayor’s office, to tell them of the importance of allowing the Director of Corporate Access and Privacy to perform her functions untrammeled by threats, coercion, or any other such negatives from senior city bureaucrats."
According to newspaper reports, she was called in on just five minutes notice, and fired for allegedly refusing to accept the authority of the city clerk, Ulli Watkiss. Watkiss, of course, refused to comment on the firing on the grounds that it is a "personnel matter." According to Kerry Gillespie of the Toronto Star, writing the next day, "Reynolds calls the accusation "ludicrous" and says the real reason she was fired is because she has embarrassed the city by releasing information they wanted kept under wraps.
The bureaucracy, quite naturally, doesn’t want to be embarrassed about errors, and I understand that," Reynolds said in an interview yesterday. "But there’s a greater good and that’s what this law is for."
On May 20th, Reynolds had written a letter to Toronto council complaining about the refusal of city officials to co-operate with her, and asking council to order the release of documents which senior bureaucrats wanted to keep private. She wrote that she had requested the documents be provided to her so she could determine if the information could be released, and that her boss, Watkiss, had said that the information would not be forthcoming. Eight days later, she was fired.
In "Wild Cards?" with regards to the disappearance of Union Station documents from the FOI office, I speculated as to who, other than Reynolds, may have had keys to her office; her bosses would be an obvious possibility. And, I expressed concern that "there seems to be a continuation of illegal activity pertaining to at least the Union Station affair, and quite possibly to the larger computer and other issues currently under investigation by Madam Justice Bellamy’s judicial inquiry."
The loss of Rita Reynolds is a severe blow to the City of Toronto, and to the trust and confidence in which the city is held by the public. When ex-Metro staffer Novina Wong was city clerk, Reynolds was able to operate at arms length from the bureaucracy, and was not subject to bureaucratic oversight. But, after Wong left and was replaced by Watkiss, things changed dramatically for the worse. Several mayoralty candidates have stated that the Director of Access and Privacy should report directly to city council, but in my opinion that is not sufficient.
Changes must be made to the governing legislation, the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which is an instrument of the provincial legislature. The Act must be amended to ensure that FOI officials such as Rita Reynolds cannot be subordinated to those they must obtain information from, and to further provide that subjecting an FOI official to reprisals be an offence carrying severe penalties. Premier Ernie Eves is also the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, and I suggest that he take action on this as soon as possible, as the present legislation is meaningless if it can be so easily circumvented.
To my mind, the City of Toronto is now out of control, and in a downward spiral that will be very difficult to stop. The natural arbiter of disputes between the politicos and the bureaucracy is the mayor’s office, but Toronto hasn’t really had a mayor for some time now. Senior levels of government will be reluctant to provide funds to Toronto for whatever purpose, be it infrastructure upgrades, emergency and immigration costs, or anything else, if there is the perception that graft and corruption will fritter away the funds.
And, there is the human cost to those who try to uphold the public interest. Columnist John Barber of the Globe and Mail quotes Rita Reynolds as follows: "I’ve done everything I could do, and I would have continued doing it. But there’s certainly an upside to having the burden removed, because it has consumed my life."
Jeff Goodall worked for the Metro Treasury and City Finance Departments for 25 years, and served as a member of the CUPE Local 79 Executive Board for 14 of those years.