Public meeting on PATI Bill

The Government of Bermuda invited Carole Excell, Senior Associate WRI, to come to Bermuda to participate in a number of events in November 2009 to increase public participation and submissions on Bermudas new Public Access to Information Bill (PATI). The schedule included a public meeting to discuss the importance of the PATI Bill and discuss experiences in implementation of Right to Know legislation in other countries. Interviews with media were conducted as well as meetings with government officials including the Ombudsman, the Archives Department, Permanent Secretaries and the Cabinet.

Only 4 submissions had been received on the Bill at the time of the visit, despite a Right to Know Campaign that had been launched by the local newspaper ‘The Gazette’ for over a year. The period for receipt of comments on the Bill ended on November 30th. It has just been reported that in total a record number of submissions - four hundred and thirty seven (437) were received on the PATI legislation as of November 30th.

A main issue of contention at the public meeting was that the PATI Bill was not retroactive in scope. On December 4th a Ministerial Statement was issued by the Premier THE HON. EWART F. BROWN JP, MP. stating “I wish to advise this Honourable House that when I invite Cabinet’s further consideration of the Bill it will contain a recommendation that it consider the issue of retroactivity. Personally, Mr. Speaker, I wish it to be clearly understood that I am in favour of retroactivity right back to the Sea Venture”.