Let’s be honest, in Canada, when an individual citizen has been wronged by a big institution, the citizen who goes up against the institution, the citizen will lose.

There is no accountability.

Those citizens may think there are ways to fight back, but courts in Canada are costly and prolonged, and rarely side with the smaller party, and even if they do, the financial compensation will never be big enough to make a difference.

But the middle class thing there is a remedy, and often, they appeal to an industry’s or institution’s ombudsman to remedy the problem.

Don’t be naive.

These organizations are fortresses to protect the industry or institution. They wouldn’t be in business if they went against them. Organizations would pull out, and lobby to dismantle it.

And usually, people who file complaints have no experience, while institutions deal with these complaints, and have better lawyers than those complaining, and also have PR firms and lobbyists that the regular citizen doesn’t.

The “remedies” are usually non-binding and a pittance.

The wait times for someone wearing an “investigator” paper crown can take months, and they are not happy if you complain about being held in limbo.

They will always take the word of the institution as the word of God. They will not look at special circumstances. There is a rigged checklist, and their rote binary brains are trained to dutifully follow like lapdogs.

And the laws are rigged to protect institutions.

In Ontario, so-called “access to information” is a scam. Wait times are long, and usually end in rejection on unjustifiable grounds (something that will be discussed at length over at KlueIQ in the coming weeks). Want to get police files on an unsolved murder that happened over a half century ago? You won’t get it.

Universities can withhold files, and if you appeal to the Privacy Commissioner, your investigator will say, “too bad.” They have an exception baked in provincial law, and can get away with all sorts of unethical practices.

There used to be on Ontario Press Council, it was a volunteer organization made up mostly people in the profession, and it was always non-binding and there were no putative outcomes or remedies. That shut its doors and was replaced by the equally toothless National NewsMedia Council. People are made to believe someone can hold an industry accountable. Not in Canada.

Then there is the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments or OBSI. If the banks have done you wrong and your escalated appeal to the bank went nowhere, don’t bother with OBSI. They won’t take your side, and if there is a safe bone to throw every once in a while, the bank is not obligated to listen.

And if you choose to sue the bank, you can’t use OBSI’s ruling as evidence. This is all you need to know.

They don’t record meetings and they don’t you to do the same. There is a reason for it.

It is, in essence, a sham.

But it isn’t just privacy or banking that has this rig: every institution and industry runs the same smoke and mirrors game.

When decisions aren’t binding and when a lone citizen is up against a well-oiled machine, the odds are grim, and chances are the citizen will be made to feel as if they are to blame. They are not.

These are fortresses to protect the institution or industry at all costs. They have no teeth, only lip.