Office of the Information and Privacy
Commissioner
June 15, 2010
Office of the
Information and Privacy Commissioner —
Report A-2010-008 Released
The Information and Privacy Commissioner,
Ed Ring, has released his Report A-2010-008 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-2010-008
Report Date: June 9, 2010
Public Body: College of the North Atlantic
Summary: The Applicant applied to the
College of the North Atlantic (the "College") under the Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the "ATIPPA") for
access to records relating to amendments to an agreement between the
College and the State of Qatar involving the establishment of a campus
of the College in Qatar (the "Comprehensive Agreement"). The
College denied access relying on the exceptions to disclosure set out in
sections 20 (advice and recommendations), 21 (legal advice), 22
(disclosure harmful to law enforcement), 24 (disclosure harmful to the
financial or economic interests of a public body), and 30 (disclosure of
personal information). The Commissioner determined that the College was
entitled to refuse access to certain information based on sections 20,
24 and 30 but could not rely on the section 22 exception to deny access
to information and the Commissioner recommended release of that
information. The Commissioner recommended that the College reconsider
its decision to withhold on the basis of section 21 information
contained in an analysis of the Comprehensive Agreement conducted
by the College's external legal counsel. The Commissioner made a finding
that the College did not respond to the Applicant in an open, accurate
and complete manner resulting in a failure to meet the duty to assist
imposed on it by section 9. The Commissioner recommended that the
College provide the Applicant with a Fee Estimate of cost of conducting
a reasonable search for any remaining records responsive to the
Applicant's request.
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Media contact:
Ed Ring
Information and Privacy Commissioner
709-729-6309
2010 06 15
11:40 a.m.
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