Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. Guide to FOIP, Chapter 3, Access to Records. Updated 5 May 2023. 3 FOIP. When assessing whether there was an abuse of the right of access, the Commissioner only considered the actions of each applicant separately and not as a group. As a result, the Commissioner found that the five access to information requests did not meet the tests for subsections 45.1(2)(a), (b) or (c) of FOIP and refused the PCS’ application to disregard them. The 30-day clock for processing the five access to information requests resumed as of the date of the Commissioner’s decision. Section 5: Right of Access Right of Access 5 Subject to this Act and the regulations, every person has a right to and, on an application made in accordance with this Part, shall be permitted access to records that are in the possession or under the control of a government institution. Section 5 of FOIP establishes a right of access by any person to records in the possession or control of a government institution, subject to limited and specific exemptions, which are set out in FOIP. The Supreme Court of Canada has interpreted access to information laws as quasiconstitutional. It follows that as fundamental rights, the rights to access and to privacy are interpreted generously, while the exceptions to these rights must be understood strictly.2 Access is defined as the right of an individual (or the individual’s lawfully authorized representative) to view or obtain copies of the records in the possession or control of a government institution including the individual’s personal information.3 A record is defined at subsection 2(1)(i) of FOIP as “a record of information in any form and includes information that is written, photographed, recorded or stored in any manner, but does not include computer programs or other mechanisms that produce records.” A “record” includes transitory records that exist at the time of an access to information request. Transitory records are records of temporary usefulness that are needed only for a limited period of time, to complete a routine task or to prepare an ongoing document. This 2 Remarks of the Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin, P.C., Chief Justice of Canada, Access to Information and Protection of Privacy in Canadian Democracy, May 5, 2009, also cited in Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner (SK OIPC) Review Report F-2010-002 at [44]. 3 SK OIPC, 2012-2013 Annual Report, Appendix 3.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTgwMjYzOA==