Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. Guide to FOIP, Chapter 3, Access to Records. Updated 5 May 2023. 67 SECTION 8: SEVERABILITY Severability 8 Where a record contains information to which an applicant is refused access, the head shall give access to as much of the record as can reasonably be severed without disclosing the information to which the applicant is refused. Severability is the principle described in section 8 of FOIP requiring that information be disclosed if it does not contain, or if it can be reasonably severed from, other information that the head of a government institution is authorized or obligated to refuse to disclose under the Act.108 Severing is the actual exercise by which portions of a document are blacked or greyed out before the document is provided to an applicant. It is the physical masking or removal from a record any information that is being exempted from disclosure in order that the remainder of the record may be disclosed.109 Reasonable severability – section 8 of FOIP uses the phrase “can reasonably be severed.” FOIP does not elaborate on what constitutes reasonable severability. One principle that has emerged from decisions of other IPC offices and the courts is that information that would comprise of only disconnected or meaningless snippets is not reasonably severable and such snippets need not be released. In this regard, an important consideration is whether the degree of effort to sever the record is proportionate to the quality of information remaining in the record.110 In SNC-Lavalin Inc. v. Canada (Minister of Public Works), (1994), the court held that “disconnected snippets of releasable information taken from otherwise exempt passages are not…reasonably severable111 and severance of exempt and nonexempt portions should be attempted only when the result is a reasonable fulfillment of the purposes of the Act.112 The process of reaching the conclusion that information is not reasonably severable is 108 Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, Glossary of terms related to access to information and privacy, https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/access-information-privacy/accessinformation/glossary-access-information-privacy.html. Accessed on June 27, 2019. 109 British Columbia Government Services, FOIPPA Policy Definitions at https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/services-for-government/policiesprocedures/foippa-manual/policy-definitions. Accessed April 23, 2020. 110 ON IPC PHIPA Decision 52, HA15-8-2 at [57]. 111 SNC-Lavalin Inc. v. Canada (Minister of Public Works), (1994), 79 F.T.R. 113, 1994 CarswellNat 354, [1994] F.C.J. No. 1059 (Fed. T.D.) at [48]. 112 Canada (Information Commissioner) v. Canada (Solicitor General), [1998] 3 F.C. 551 (Fed. T.D.) at p.p. 558-559.
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