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Summary
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The Ministry of Health (the Ministry) received a request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act) for access to two specific letters relating to the requester which were sent to the Ministry by a third party. The Ministry identified two letters dated December 2, 1991 and January 9, 1992, respectively, which it considered to be responsive to the request.
The Ministry notified the purported author of the letters as a third party to the request under section 28(1) of the Act. In the response received, the third party indicated, among other things, that he/she was not the person who wrote the letters. After considering the objections to disclosure, the Ministry decided to release the letters to the requester except for the name, signature and address of the author, which the Ministry withheld pursuant to section 21(1) of the Act. The requester appealed the Ministry's decision.
Mediation was not successful and notice that an inquiry was being conducted to review the Ministry's decision was sent to the appellant, the Ministry and to the purported author of the letters. At the same time, the Commissioner's Office asked the Ministry to consider the possible application of section 49(b) of the Act to the records. Representations were received from the Ministry and the appellant only.
The information at issue in this appeal consists of the name and address of the author of a letter dated December 2, 1991 (Record 1) and the name and signature of the author of a letter dated January 9, 1992 (Record 2). The first letter contains, among other things, a complaint about the appellant's operation of his business. The second letter asks the Ministry to cease any investigation of the appellant's business which it may have initiated in response to the first letter.
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