TORONTO - Ontario's opposition parties want to know why it took a threatened lawsuit by the province's child advocate before the government agreed to turn over documents he was entitled to have.
Children's Minister Deb Matthews says her office will hand over the files requested by Child Advocate Irwin Elman sometime this week.
Elman announced last Friday that he was taking legal action against the ministry to get the information so he could help a youth who complained he was assaulted by guards while in provincial custody.
Matthews says her office had to work around privacy concerns while it compiled the information Elman had requested.
The Conservatives and New Democrats says Elman is an independent office of the legislature and shouldn't have to go to court to get government information that he is entitled by law to have.
Elman said last Friday that he got no response from the ministry despite repeated requests for reports on child fatalities and so-called internal child death reviews.
