Organization: Library and Archives Canada
Year: 2020
Month: January
Request Number: A-2019-11248
Request Summary: RE: Access to Information Act Request, Report of the Superintendent Penitentiaries, 1932 I write to make an Access to Information Act request regarding the following documents held by Library and Archives Canada: TITLE/DESCRIPTION: REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF ; PENITENTIARIES ON THE KINGSTON ; PENITENTIARY DISTURBANCES 1932 REPORTS BY DM ORMOND, SUPERINTENDENT OF PENITENTIARIES OF DEC. 6, 1932 (72 PAGES) & JAN. 23, 1933 (39 PAGES) TO THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE ON THE HISTORY OF DISTURBANCES AT THE KINGSTON PENITENTIARY AND RESULTS OF AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE RIOT OF OCT. 13, 1932. COPY OF THE PUBLISHED REPORT OF ORMOND IN 1933. TRANSCRIPT (16 PAGES) OF AN INTERVIEW HELD BY MEMBERS OF THE CANADA LABOUR DEFENCE LEAGUE WITH THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE ON OCT. 26, 1932 AT HIS OFFICE. Reference Number: RG13 2000-01038-5 Access Code: 32 - Restricted by Law I am requesting that this document be reviewed and released. Beyond the usual considerations, I wish to provide you with some information showing that these documents were public at the time they were created and should not be so treated as private now. The first two documents, reports by the Superintendent of Penitentiaries to the Minister of Justice, were available to the public and discussed in the media. For example, see statements made by Minister of Justice Hugh Guthrie in open Parliament on 6 February 1933 where he ordered 750 copies of the report to be produced for distribution, and discussion of these reports in open Parliament in the weeks that followed. Reporters who had reviewed the document in full also discussed the content of the report in the newspapers of the day. See, for example, "Slur on Private Soldier Seen in Prison Report," The Globe, 16 February 1933. The title/description of the document also notes that Ormond's report was published. The transcript of the Canadian Labour Defence League visit to Guthrie also should not be restricted. Guthrie had a government stenographer attend the meeting and invited reporters into the room during the meeting. See, for example, "Communists Well but Won't Allow them to be Seen," Toronto Daily Star, 26 October 1932, and E. Cecil-Smith, "Guthrie on Kingston Penitentiary," The Canadian Labor Defender (November 1932).
Disposition: All excluded
Number of pages: 0