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Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner
September 29, 2011

Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner – Report A-2011-015 Released

The Information and Privacy Commissioner, Ed Ring, has released his Report A-2011-015 under authority of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. A summary of the report is included below.

To view the report in its entirety, please go to www.oipc.nl.ca/accessreports.htm 

Report:           A-2011-015
Report Date:   September 26, 2011
Public Body:    College of the North Atlantic

Summary:

The Applicant applied under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (“the ATIPPA”) to the College of the North Atlantic (“the College”) for access to e-mail records containing references to herself and to another individual. The College disclosed a number of records, some of which it had severed claiming several exceptions to disclosure. The Applicant asked the Commissioner to review the severing. During the course of the informal resolution process a number of issues were resolved. However, it was discovered that the College had withheld records from the Applicant on the basis that since they had been sent to or from the Applicant, the Applicant could therefore be presumed to already have them. The fact that those records had been withheld was not communicated to the Applicant, nor to this Office. The Commissioner concluded that there was no basis under the ATIPPA for this manner of dealing with records that were sent to or from an applicant. The Commissioner also concluded that by failing to disclose its actions to either the Applicant or to this Office, the College had failed in its duty to assist the Applicant. The Commissioner therefore recommended that the College review its access to information policies and practices, remedy any deficiencies, communicate the results of the review to this Office, and take greater care in future to perform its duties in a manner consistent with the ATIPPA.

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Media contact:
Ed Ring
Information and Privacy Commissioner
709-729-6309

2011 09 29                                11:00 a.m.

 
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