Vancouver Coastal Health Wins a “Secrecy” Award—And That’s No Joke

 By Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita

You’d think awards are given to recognize excellence. But not this one.

Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) just “won” the 2024 Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy, handed out by the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) and its partners. This isn’t satire—it’s a serious (and damning) recognition of how VCH routinely failed to meet basic standards for transparency during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Let’s be clear: this award is a call-out, not a celebration.

While people across British Columbia were living in fear, searching for clarity, and trying to protect loved ones, VCH was:

• Ignoring nearly one-third of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.
• Taking over 100 days (sometimes 171 days) to respond to the media.
• Charging outdated $10 fees and only accepting cheques or money orders.
• Failing to release information they were already supposed to make public.

The B.C. Information and Privacy Commissioner confirmed it all in a damning audit. And while the pandemic created stress for everyone, systemic secrecy is not an acceptable excuse when public trust and lives are on the line.

So let’s call it what it is: a betrayal of the public's right to know.

These failures aren’t just technical slip-ups—they are part of a larger problem where public institutions forget who they serve.

We deserve better.

We deserve institutions that earn our trust, not break it. That serve truth, not silence.

Let this be a wake-up call—not just for VCH, but for every public agency that thinks secrecy is easier than accountability.

And next year? Let’s make sure no one “wins” this award again.

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Have you ever filed an FOI request or had trouble accessing public information?  Let’s shine a light where others prefer the dark.

#CodeOfSilence #FOIFail #BCHealth #TransparencyMatters #ZipolitaWrites