Guide to LA FOIP-Chapter 4

Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. Guide to LA FOIP, Chapter 4, Exemptions from the Right of Access. Updated 18 Oct 2023. 18 Information means facts or knowledge provided or learned as a result of research or study.34 IPC Findings In Review Report 124-2015, an applicant made an access request to the Saskatchewan Police Commission (SPC). The SPC withheld part of the record pursuant to subsection 13(1)(a) of LA FOIP. The Commissioner found that the SPC did not demonstrate how the information was “obtained in confidence implicitly or explicitly” from the Government of Canada or its agencies, Crown corporations or other institutions. 2. Was the information obtained implicitly or explicitly in confidence? In confidence usually describes a situation of mutual trust in which private matters are relayed or reported. Information obtained in confidence means that the provider of the information has stipulated how the information can be disseminated.35 In order for confidence to be found, there must be an implicit or explicit agreement or understanding of confidentiality on the part of both the local authority and the party that provided the information.36 The expectation of confidentiality must be reasonable and must have an objective basis.37 Whether the information is confidential will depend upon its content, its purposes, and the circumstances in which it was compiled or communicated (Corporate Express Canada, Inc. v. The President and Vice Chancellor of Memorial University of Newfoundland, Gary Kachanoski, (2014)). Once it has been established that the local authority obtained a record from another government in confidence, the continued confidentiality of that record must be presumed, unless the other government has consented to disclosure or has made the information public.38 In other words, there are no time limits on the confidentiality. Just because a record might be old, it does not lose its confidential nature. 34 Pearsall, Judy, Concise Oxford Dictionary, 10th Edition at p. 727, (Oxford University Press), Cited in SK OIPC Review Report F-2006-002 at [45]. 35 Service Alberta, FOIP Guidelines and Practices: 2009 Edition, Chapter 4, p. 104, SK OIPC Review Reports F-2006-002 at [51], H-2008-002 at [73], ON IPC Order MO-1896 at p. 8. 36 SK OIPC Review Reports F-2006-002 at [52], LA-2013-002 at [57]; ON IPC Order MO-1896 at p. 8. 37 SK OIPC Review Reports F-2012-001/LA-2012-001 at [32], LA-2013-002 at [49]; ON IPC Orders PO2273 at p. 7 and PO-2283 at p. 10. 38 Saskatchewan (Ministry of Health) v West, 2022 SKCA 18 at [25].

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