Allison Knight

The requester, a former inmate, sought access to his medical, personal, and institutional files from the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services.

The Ministry withheld certain police records under s. 49(e) of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, claiming they were 'correctional records' containing information supplied in confidence.

The Information and Privacy Commissioner's adjudicator ordered disclosure, finding that 'correctional' only applied to post-sentence records, not pre-trial detention.

The Divisional Court upheld this decision.

The Court of Appeal allowed the Ministry's appeal, holding that the adjudicator's interpretation was unreasonable because it created an artificial and unworkable distinction between pre- and post-sentence records.

The matter was remitted to a new adjudicator to determine if the records met the confidentiality requirement.

The Information and Privacy Commissioner appealed a Divisional Court decision which held that confidential mediation and settlement records involving the Liquor Control Board of Ontario were exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA).

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, finding that the term 'litigation' in the second branch of s. 19 of FIPPA includes both mandatory and consensual mediation.

The court held that the exemption is not limited to documents falling within common law litigation privilege, and therefore the disputed records were protected from disclosure.