August 2, 2012
Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner
– Report A-2012-009 Released
The Information and Privacy Commissioner, Ed Ring, has released his Report A-2012-009 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-2012-009
Report Date: July 25, 2012
Public Body: Memorial University of Newfoundland
Summary: The Applicant requested records from Memorial University pertaining to the observational study of MS patients announced on September 13, 2012 by the Minister of Health and Community Services. Memorial denied access to all the records under section 5, which exempts “research information” from the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. During the course of the Review, Memorial took issue with the fact that records were requested from them by this Office while, in its opinion, the records were outside the jurisdiction of the Commissioner. The Commissioner stated that when a Request for Review is filed with this Office, the responsive records are requested from the public body as a matter of course, as it is often impossible to determine exactly what the records consist of without seeing them. Further, while the Commissioner cannot compel production of records which the public body states are exempt from the ATIPPA under section 5, this Office can still request that such records be provided voluntarily and this request could be granted by the public body in the keeping with the spirit and intent of the ATIPPA. The Commissioner found that some of the records were indeed research information and exempt from the ATIPPA while others were not, and should therefore be disclosed. Other records which were also found not to be research information were excepted from disclosure under section 30.
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Media contact:
Ed Ring
Information and Privacy Commissioner
709-729-6309
2012 08 02 10:30 a.m.