Trudeau Liberals spent $39 MILLION to black out documents requested by public: report

The government justified its actions by claiming that documents were blacked out to help deal with a backlog in AIA requests.

According to Blacklock's Reporter, Conservative MP Kelly McCauley submitted an Inquiry of Ministry, which came back showing that that there had, in fact, been "contracts provided to consultants related to the processing of requests made under the Access To Information Act since January 1, 2020."

"Each file is different based on the complexity and the volume of pages," the inquiry revealed. "Some consultants have other functions including file review and providing technical advice."

The contracts in question ranged from a few thousand to hundreds of thousands of dollars, with some companies being given multiple assignments.

Altis Human Resources Inc., for example, grossed $15.8 million for its services.

In the inquiry, the Liberals blamed "the current backlog of Access To Information requests which have accumulated over several years," and said they turned to private contractors to help speed up reduction.

As True North reports, this is not the first time the Trudeau government has been caught censoring documents to "hide information from the public."

During the height of the WE Charity scandal, Conservatives called Liberals out for blacking out details. Pierre Poilievre led the charge.

During a news conference in August 2020, Poilievre held up numerous documents that had an extensive portion blacked out.

"All the substance is blacked out," he said, holding up printed copies of important emails before tossing them aside.

He blasted Trudeau for shutting down parliamentary committees that could have investigated the documents the same day they became public.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Poilievre said, "this is a cover-up."