Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. Guide to FOIP, Chapter 4, Exemptions from the Right of Access. Updated 24 July 2025. 294 The following two-part test can be applied: 1. Is the record a correspondence between the government institution’s legal counsel (or an agent of the Attorney General) and any other person? Correspondence means letters sent or received.1014 It is an interchange of written communication.1015 A memorandum or note from one employee of a government institution to another summarizing a conversation between that employee and the government institution’s lawyer may meet the criteria for this provision.1016 Agent means someone who is authorized to act for or in place of another.1017 Attorney General, in this context, is the chief law officer of Saskatchewan responsible for advising the government on legal matters and representing it in litigation.1018 Any other person was an intentional and inclusive phrase to capture just that – any other person. The government institution must make it sufficiently clear, as to what the nature of that other person’s role in the correspondence was.1019 2. Does the correspondence relate to a matter that involves the provision of advice or other services by the agent or legal counsel? In relation to has been found to have a similar meaning as “in respect of”. It was considered in Nowegijick v. The Queen: The words “in respect of” are, in my opinion, words of the widest possible scope. They import such meanings as “in relation to”, “with reference to” or “in connection with”. The phrase “in respect of” is probably the widest of any expression intended to convey some connection between two related subject-matters.1020 1014 Pearsall, Judy, Concise Oxford Dictionary, 10th Ed., (Oxford University Press) at p. 320. 1015 Previous definition from SK OIPC Review Report 125-2015 at [35]. 1016 Information contained in a “post-it” note was found to be “information in correspondence between …a public body and any other person in relation to a matter involving the provision of advice…by the lawyer” in AB IPC Order 96-019 at [113]. 1017 Garner, Bryan A., 2019. Black’s Law Dictionary, 11th Edition. St. Paul, Minn.: West Group at p. 78. 1018 Modified from Garner, Bryan A., 2009. Black’s Law Dictionary, Deluxe 10th Edition. St. Paul, Minn.: West Group at p. 154. 1019 AB IPC Interim Decision Order F2018-D-01/Order F2018-38 at [151]. 1020 Nowegijick v. The Queen, [1983] 1 SCR 29, 1983 CanLII 18 (SCC) at [39].
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