Latest Posts
What is evidence in a review?
Simply saying something is true doesn’t always make it so. For example, telling me a particular store is closed on a given holiday won’t necessarily make me believe it is. Showing me the store’s website holiday schedule is likely to make me believe it a bit more. Driving me by the store on Christmas day... read more
Facial recognition – the path forward?
The media has focused considerable attention on facial recognition (FR). Access and privacy commissioners have been focusing on the issue too. The Ontario Commissioner has just posted an excellent blog on Mugshots to megabytes: facial recognition has made privacy protection more urgent than ever. The privacy protection authorities for each province and territory of Canada... read more
Mediation or case-by-case privilege
In the Commissioner’s Review Report 065-2020, he considered if mediation or case-by-case privilege applied to the records in question. The public body had claimed mediation or case-by-case privilege pursuant to subsection 22(a) of The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP). The Commissioner considered orders issued by the Office of the Information and... read more
A good access request
You want some information from a government ministry, board, agency, Crown corporation, or from a city, town, village, rural municipality, university, school, library or health trustee. First, try the informal method, which is finding out who makes decisions regarding releasing information, maybe the director or a supervisor, and request by telephone the information you would... read more