 
Ontario to Force Open Meetings on Municipalities City councils, school boards, and various other municipal bodies will be required to hold open meetings and publish their agendas in advance under the terms of legislation currently pending in the Ontario legislature. Bill 123, the Transparency in Public Matters Act, sets up a comprehensive code of conduct for municipal government and allows oversight by the provincial Information and Privacy Commission to ensure that the public is given proper access. At the legislative committee hearings, Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, Director of CCLA's Freedom of Expression Project, said "Public access to legislative deliberations is a cornerstone of democracy." "People need to know what it is their representatives are doing. That can only happen when bodies function in a public and open way." Mendelsohn Aviv added, however, that the legislation should explicitly provide that, in the absence of certain articulated criteria, meetings of municipal bodies should be held in public. | CCLA In The Schools | Join Us | Feedback | Search | Other Interesting Sites | Home |
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