Robert Marleau

Who is Robert Marleau?

Robert Marleau is a former Canadian federal public servant and former Information Commissioner of Canada. Beginning in 1970, Marleau served 31 years in the Parliament of Canada, 13 of which were as the Clerk of the House of Commons from July 1987 to July 2000. From July 2000 until his retirement at the end of January 2001, he served as Senior Advisor to the Speaker of the House of Commons.

He came out of retirement to serve as Information Commissioner from 2006 to 2009. In his own words, during this time he was "for proactive disclosure, ... for more communication, posting more on the websites, using informal communication methods rather than the Access to Information Act... It's not helpful to appear to be deliberately not communicating," Marleau resigned abruptly from his position in late June 2009, roughly midway through his term. As part of a strongly worded criticism published by Bruce Campion-Smith, contemporary Ottawa Bureau Chief of the Toronto Star, he lamented one day prior to his resignation the decline of "effort by any government to have" the Access to Information Act or similar "processes keep pace with time, change and technology."

As Chief Clerk of the House in 2000, he was the editor, along with Camille Montpetit, of House of Commons Procedure and Practice, which is available both online and in print. This work is part of an ongoing effort, begun in 1884 by Sir John George Bourinot, to document Canadian Parliamentary procedure.