Fighting for Access to Tommy Douglas' Files

Tommy Douglas has been the subject of numerous books, documentaries, movies and debates that finally crowned him, in a CBC competition, as the Greatest Canadian.

But the federal government is still reluctant to tell Canadians everything they know about the man.

Canadian Press reporter Jim Bronskill, who knows the Access to Information Act better than most any other journalist in Canada, has tried and so far failed to pry the information loose. He filed an access request in 2005, getting a file that showed the RCMP secretly monitored the former NDP leader's speeches and even eavesdropped on private conversations. But much of the file was blacked out.

Now Canadian Press is taking the federal government to court to force disclosure of hundreds of pages of material they have so far withheld.