Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. A Guide to Submissions. Effective Sept. 2020. Updated Dec. 2022. 17 Gather Your Evidence As a public body/trustee, you will have arguments under various sections of FOIP, LA FOIP or HIPA, but your case will be assisted by providing some supporting documentation in terms of other evidence such as letters, emails, and memos supporting your arguments. If negotiations are going on, provide the documents that show that negotiations are going on. If you expect negotiations in the future, provide some documents that support that you will be negotiating in three months, six months or one year. Speculation that negotiations might be going on will not be sufficient. If you are arguing that the records are confidential, provide some documents supporting your claim that the communication was confidential. You can refer to a clause in a contract, a paragraph in an email or a memo to the file indicating future conversations will be confidential. If historically similar communications in the past were confidential, provide proof of that. Proving these things can either be shown by providing records or an affidavit of an employee of a public body/trustee. Public bodies/trustees should be aware that providing these examples does not mean the Commissioner will always find the communications were confidential, but it will increase the chances he will. All factors pertinent and unique to each case are considered. Copies of original documentation is better evidence than a generalized statement offered later on. Marshall Your Arguments In thinking about your submission, you may wish to consider referring to other sources of information. You might consider referring to any of the following: • Excerpts from relevant legislation or regulations that apply to the operations of the public body/trustee and that relate to the issues under review. • Excerpts from policy manuals that set out practices or policies followed by the public body/trustee that relate to the issues under review. • Relevant court decisions or past Reports of the Commissioner’s office and/or Saskatchewan courts. The Commissioner’s office publishes on its website the Reports and recommendations issued when it concludes a review of a decision of a public body/trustee. • Decisions made by the Information and Privacy Commissioners or courts in other jurisdictions that may be of assistance to the Commissioner’s office in its consideration of the issues. Each exemption under FOIP, LA FOIP or HIPA has certain requirements that must be satisfied. It is
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