Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. Guide to FOIP, Chapter 4, Exemptions from the Right of Access. Updated 24 July 2025. 281 privilege to disclosure to them. In my view, the ambit of the common interest privilege is aptly summarized in the Sopinka on evidence 2d ed., Supp. of 2004 @ p. 133 which cites the case of Pitney Bowes of Canada Ltd. V. Canada (2003), 225 D.LR. (4th) 747, 2003 FCT 214 quoted by the chambers judge at para. 31 of his reasons. Where legal opinions are shared by parties with mutual interests in commercial transactions, there is a sufficient interest in common to extend the common interest privilege to disclosure of opinions obtained by one of them to the others within the group, even in circumstances where no litigation is in existence or contemplated. [Emphasis added] IPC Findings In Review Report 298-2019, the Commissioner considered common interest privilege. The Saskatoon Board of Police Commissioners (Board) asserted that common interest privilege applied. Upon review, the Commissioner established the two-part test and found that there was a common interest privilege between the Board and the Saskatoon Police Service members. Furthermore, that the sharing of the records did not constitute a waiver of the solicitor-client privilege that applied to the records. Legislative Privilege Legislative privilege (also known as parliamentary privilege) is a unique class privilege that extends to members of the Legislative Assembly immunity to do their legislative work.966 It has been defined as “the sum of the privileges, immunities and powers enjoyed by the Senate, the House of Commons and provincial legislative assemblies, and by each member individually, without which they could not discharge their functions.”967 Legislative bodies in Canada have inherent parliamentary privileges which flow from their nature and function in a Westminster model of parliamentary democracy. By shielding some areas of legislative activity from external review, parliamentary privilege helps preserve the separation of powers. It grants the legislative branch of government the autonomy it requires to perform its constitutional functions. Parliamentary privilege also plays an important role in our democratic tradition because it ensures that elected representatives have the freedom to vigorously debate laws and to hold the executive to account. However, inherent privileges are 966 Service Alberta, FOIP Guidelines and Practices: 2009 Edition, Chapter 4 at p. 199. 967 Chagnon v. Syndicat de la fonction publique et parapublique du Québec, [2018] 2 SCR 687, 2018 SCC 39 (CanLII) at [19].
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTgwMjYzOA==