In an aviation insurance dispute arising from an aircraft crash, the defendants sought production of documents from the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) under Rule 30.10 of the Rules of Civil Procedure and provisions of the Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board Act.
The court considered whether statutory privileges over cockpit voice recordings, statements to investigators, and representations made regarding draft TSB reports could be overridden.
Applying the statutory balancing tests, the court ordered production of the cockpit voice recorder recordings and certain factual documents where the public interest in the proper administration of justice outweighed the privilege.
Statements given to investigators for aviation safety purposes were largely protected, and representations regarding the TSB draft report remained absolutely privileged.
The flight data recorder information was ordered produced as it was not covered by statutory privilege.
