McGill University has put a motion before Quebec’s commission on access to information for permission to deny requests from 14 students, according to media relations director Julie Fortier.
McGill also wants permission to ignore any future requests from students that waste university resources.
“We are not asking for permission to refuse all requests from these individuals. We are simply asking for permission to ignore any requests that would be similar in their abusive nature, where responding to these requests would seriously disrupt normal university operations,” Fortier said via email.
The requests were made within a few weeks of each other and were similar in their wording or content, she said.
Mona Luxion, a student named in the motion, said she thinks the university is trying to avoid releasing information that might hurt its reputation.
She said she asked for information about a McGill lab involved with military research, but was told her request was too demanding.
“I wanted to have more information about the ties between McGill and various military research as part of an awareness campaign that a number of students are involved in,” she said.
Fortier said most of the requests were unreasonable. Some wanted all emails between McGill and its dealings with 30 companies. One request asked for the invoices of all the food in the principal’s office refrigerator for the last 10 years.
The students who made the requests want to waste the university’s resources, she said. Many of them were made by students who participated in last year’s protests.
Forty students occupied one of McGill’s administrative building for several days in February 2012. They wanted the university to uphold the results of a referendum deciding the fate of two student groups.
“Submitting requests that they know are impossible to respond to within the required delays is just another way for them to disrupt university operations, and claim that the university is poorly managed. In fact, two of the people requesting a lot of documents did not come to pick them up when they were informed that they were ready,” she said.
Luxion said the requests are not retaliation against the university, and most of them are not connected to each other.
“There really isn’t any justification for that accusation,” she said. “I think it’s kind of weird for a university that is in the business of sharing information to think that requests for information are retaliation.”
“We’re asking for some sensitive information that might not look good for McGill if it were released. They’re very protective of their brand and their image,” she said.
This is not the first time a public institution has asked to deny access to information requests, said Isabelle St-Pierre, a spokesperson for the Quebec Access to Information Commission.
She said she cannot comment on whether McGill will be granted its motion until after the commission’s tribunal has made a decision, but did say the university could deny the requests if it can prove the demands were frivolous.
“The commission can authorize a public organization to not uphold requests that are abusive by their number, or repetitive nature,” she said.
