Information Commissioner rules Liberals lied about Soros-linked immigration plan
After Rebel News refused to take no for an answer, the government eventually turned over dozens of documents they initially told us didn't exist.
The Liberals recently turned over immigration documents that they first claimed to Rebel News did not exist.
Today's win for transparency against Justin Trudeau has been 3 years in the making. In 2018, we noticed a press release — from way back in 2016 — announcing a partnership with the Federal Immigration Ministry, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, and the Open Society Foundation. The federal government had joined forces with the UN and the George Soros left-wing mega-organization to increase the number of privately sponsored refugees to Canada. And in 2018, that's basically all the information the government was willing to provide to Canadians — no word on cost, or numbers of refugees, or where they would be from, who would be in charge of the program, or what sort of oversight was in place.
So Rebel News asked for that information in an access to information request:
“Regarding the agreement between the government of Canada, the UNHCR and the Open Society Foundation to launch a joint initiative aimed at increasing private sponsorship of refugees around the world, as announced at the below link, please provide copies of all background and supporting policy documents. Include copies of any agreements involved. Provide only final or latest versions of documents.”
And that's when the lying and stonewalling began. The government denied having ANY records relating to the program, or even the announcement of it.
"Following a thorough search of our information holdings, I regret to inform you that no records were found that respond to your request."
That's impossible. Everything the government touches involved too many emails from too many bureaucrats. When she was environment minister, Catherine McKenna's tweets required two dozen individuals involved in the drafting, planning and sending of those gaffe-prone disasters.
We appealed all the way up to the Information Commissioner.
The Commissioner has just issued her official ruling that determined the government did not do a thorough search, as they replied to us.
"IRCC was required to conduct a reasonable search for records that fall within the scope of the access request—that is, one or more experienced employees, knowledgeable in the subject matter of the request, must have made reasonable efforts to identify and locate all records reasonably related to the request. A reasonable search involves a level of effort that would be expected of any fair, sensible person tasked with searching for responsive records where they are likely to be stored. This search does not have to be perfect. An institution is therefore not required to prove with absolute certainty that further records do not exist. Institutions must however be able to show that they took reasonable steps to identify and locate responsive records. Based on IRCC’s representations, and following the OIC’s intervention, IRCC provided the complainant with a responsive record that IRCC claims did not exist at the time of the request."
After Rebel News refused to take no for an answer, the government eventually turned over dozens of documents they said didn't exist. I am still weeding through those so be sure to stay subscribed to RebelNews.com to not miss that story when it breaks.
This isn't just about the government lying. That's nothing new. The Liberals were actively hiding their collaboration with a foreign far-left wing billionaire from Canadians and then calling anyone who questioned any of it a "conspiracy theorist."
We wouldn't have any of this new information without pushing and fighting for it. And we can't push and fight against the federal government without the support of you at home through your donations at our special investigative journalism website, RebelInvestigates.com. Thanks for making this victory happen.
But we still have so much work left to do, on this issue and many more. We file dozens of access requests every week, we appeal several denied or redacted documents each month, and we have a researcher who helps us do all that and assist us with the examination of the returns. To help offset those costs, you can donate at RebelInvestigates.com.
You can read the Commissioner's official ruling for yourself here:
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