Ken Rubin
Mr. Rubin has been active
in investigating secrecy and a wide range of issues for over three and a half
decades. As a community worker, consumer advocate and public interest researcher
and lay litigant since the sixties, he's been active in many campaigns from
food safety to telephone rates to environmental contamination. Born and raised
in Winnipeg, he now lives in Ottawa and has an organic farm in West Quebec.
He is best known for his work as a freedom of information advocate prodding
different institutions to be more open. He has used Canada's Access to Information
Act and provincial freedom of information legislation thousands of times.
He has aided in uncovering matters like the real stories behind Canada's Food
Guide, the Canadian Government's Ignoring Environmental Concerns in Candu Reactors
Sale to China, Nationair's Poor Air Safety Record, Efforts to Introduce an ID
Card for the Poor, the Patronage and Waste in Canada's Federal Identity Marketing
Sponsorship Program, the Health Problems Connected to Meme Breast Implants,
the Lobby Efforts of the Asbestos Industry, The Canadian Government's Involvement
in the Tobacco Industry, the Crisis with Native Drinking Water, and the Contamination
with Excessive Nutrients in Our Waterways.
Hundreds of media stories have appeared as a result of his digging for information.
He has assisted many different groups from public interest bodies, the media,
unions, professional groups and trade associations and individuals seeking hard
to get data. He has made international requests and was invited to the United
States and India by freedom of information, consumer and environmental groups
to assist in their quest for improvements to public access.
He is author of numerous articles and papers on public issues, has done workshops
and spoken at conferences, and testified in front of various legislative bodies
on secrecy, record alteration, privacy invasion, and health, safety and environmental
matters.
Many of his Federal Court actions for freedom of information that he prepared
and argued are referred to as benchmark disclosure cases. He has helped promote
improvements in freedom of information legislation in Canada, and elsewhere
including having a role in amending the Canadian act to penalize officials for
record alteration violations.
His continued and dogged commitment in freedom of information, and to a variety
of citizen issues has earned him few awards and labels like gadfly and crusader.