Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. Guide to LA FOIP, Chapter3, Access to Records. Updated 5 May 2023. 69 which are not exempt continue to be subject to disclosure if disclosure is meaningful”. The cost-benefit analysis considers whether the effort of redaction by the government institution is justified by the benefits of severing and disclosing the remaining information. Even where the severed text is not completely devoid of meaning, severance will be reasonable only if disclosure of the unexcised portions of the record would reasonably fulfill the purposes of the Act. Where severance leaves only “[d]isconnected snippets of releasable information”, disclosure of that type of information does not fulfill the purpose of the Act and severance is not reasonable: Canada (Information Commissioner) v. Canada (Solicitor General), [1988] 3 F.C. 551 (T.D.), at pp. 558-59; SNCLavalin Inc., at para. 48. As Jerome A.C.J. put it in Montana Band of Indians v. Canada (Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs), [1989] 1 F.C. 143 (T.D.): To attempt to comply with section 25 would result in the release of an entirely blacked-out document with, at most, two or three lines showing. Without the context of the rest of the statement, such information would be worthless. The effort such severance would require on the part of the Department is not reasonably proportionate to the quality of access it would provide. [Emphasis added; pp. 160-61.] [238] That said, one must not lose sight of the purpose of s. 25. It aims to facilitate access to the most information reasonably possible while giving effect to the limited and specific exemptions set out in the Act: Ontario (Public Safety and Security), at para. 67. The IPC discourages the use of white space redacting. White space redacting is where software removes the content of a record in such a way that it renders the redacted content indistinguishable from the blank background of the document. This type of redacting creates uncertainty as to what, if anything, has been redacted. White space redaction lacks specificity because when reviewing the responsive pages, an applicant cannot tell if the white space accounts for a missing line, paragraph, table, image etc. or if the page was naturally left blank. Local authorities have a duty to assist applicants by responding openly, accurately and completely. Invisible white space redactions fall short of this mandatory duty. Applicants should be able to evaluate the amount of missing information.113 The preference is black-out or grey-out redacting which allows sufficient visual context to indicate the length and general nature of the information (e.g., chart, column, list, sentence, or paragraph). 113 Office of the Quebec Information and Privacy Commissioner Order 2017 QCCAI 274 at [46]. Office of the Prince Edward Island Information and Privacy Commissioner (PEI IPC) Order FI-10-008 at [66] and [71].
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