I’m raising funds toward the costs of this work: answering an application to disregard my access requests, the requests themselves, a petition now before the Supreme Court of BC, and the time and expense of keeping it going. It all concerns how elections in British Columbia are administered. What the court decides in that petition would apply to anyone who files a complaint about an election in future, not only to me.

My lawyer: Umar Sheikh, https://www.sheikhlaw.ca/

What I need help with

1. Responding to the section 43 application

Under section 43 of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, a public body can apply to the Information and Privacy Commissioner for permission to disregard Freedom of information access requests. An office of the Legislature made an application of that kind about requests I had filed for records on the administration of the 2024 provincial general election. It was later withdrawn. I needed a lawyer to respond to it in the meantime. That cost came out of funds raised for the judicial review, which is a large part of why I am raising again now.

2. Access requests

Those requests are ongoing. Fees come up on some and not on others. The steady cost is time: working through the correspondence on each request, reviewing the decisions as they come back, and checking them against the Election Act, FOIPPA, OIPC orders, and the relevant case law. I do that work myself. Support covers the fees when they arise, and helps me keep putting the hours in.

3. The court petition, now and ahead

Judicial review is the process a court uses to look at whether a public decision-maker acted within the authority the law gives them. In January 2026 I filed a petition for judicial review in the Supreme Court of British Columbia and served it on the respondents. It concerns a decision made under section 277 of the Election Act. I disagreed with that decision and asked the court to review it. The costs are court filing fees, preparing affidavits, written submissions, and hearing costs, both for that petition as it moves forward and for anything further I need to file.

Section 43 changed this year

Bill 9, the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Amendment Act, 2026, received Royal Assent on 28 May 2026 and expanded the grounds for making one of these applications. A transitional provision applies the amended section to requests received before, on, or after it came into force.

It is new law, and there is not much yet on how it works in practice. What it costs someone to respond to one of these is a real question for anyone who uses BC’s access-to-information system.

The time this has taken

More than 3,000 hours have gone into this so far. Beyond the requests and the court matter, that includes writing up what the records show, reports, making public & committee submissions on how elections are administered, not only for the 2024 provincial election. So far I have covered most of that myself, Phase 1 & 2, and in time.

What I cannot do is carry all of it on my own indefinitely. Support is what keeps this moving instead of stalling.

Where things stand

The first two phases paid for everything that has been done so far, and I am grateful to everyone who backed them. They are the reason there is a petition filed and, unexpectedly, a section 43 application answered. Phase 3 is what carries the work forward.

1. Phase 1: $10,000, completed
2. Phase 2: $35,000, completed
3. Phase 3: $30,000, projected

I will post updates on X at @TheRemanded

Thank you

Thanks for reading this far. If you can help with any part of this, it makes a real difference to whether it keeps moving. I am glad to answer questions about any of it.

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