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Document
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PO-1819
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File #
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PA-990354-1
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Institution/HIC
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Ministry of the Attorney General
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Summary
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NATURE OF THE APPEAL: The Ministry of the Attorney General (the Ministry) received a request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act ). The request was made to the Ministry's Special Investigations Unit (the SIU) for access to records relating to the SIU investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of a young boy in a motor vehicle accident. The requester is a lawyer representing the boy's family and I will refer to his parents as the appellants in this decision. The SIU became involved because the driver of the vehicle which struck and killed the boy was an on-duty police officer with the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Police Service (the Police). The appellants are specifically seeking access to the: Accident Reconstruction Report; Police Communication Tape; Photographs of the accident scene and the police cruiser; All civilian witness statements; The statement of the subject police officer; Any and all written statements, statements reduced to writing and documents relied upon in the investigation. The Ministry located 122 pages of records responsive to the request, along with a 16-minute videotape, six audiotapes of witness interviews, an audiotape of the police communications for the pertinent time period and 66 photographs. The Ministry denied access to all of the records, claiming the application of the exemptions in sections 14(2)(a) (law enforcement report) and 21(1) and 49(b) (invasion of privacy) with reference to the presumption in section 21(3)(b) (information compiled as part of an investigation into a possible violation of law). The appellants appealed the Ministry's decision to deny access to the requested information. During the mediation stage of the appeal, the Mediator assigned by this office obtained the consent of seven witnesses to the disclosure of their statements, in whole or in part, to the appellants. The subject officer refused to consent to the disclosure of her statement. The consents from the witnesses were provided to the Ministry by the Mediator but the Ministry refused to disclose those portions of the requested records which contained the witnesses' statements. I provided a Notice of Inquiry to the Ministry and the subject police officer (the affected person) initially, seeking their representations on the application of the exemptions claimed. Because the records for which the Ministry claimed the application of section 14(2)(a) also appeared to contain the personal information of the appellants, I requested that the Ministry also address the possible application of section 49(a) to those records. I received submissions from the Ministry which were shared, in part, with the appellants. Portions of the Ministry's representations were withheld from the appellants due to confidentiality concerns. The Ministry submits that all of the records at issue, with the exception of Records 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7a, 22 and 24, are exempt under section 14(2)(a) and that all of the records also qualify for exemption under section 21(1) as they were compiled and are identifiable as part of investigation into a possible violation of law (section 21(3)(b)). The affected person advised this office, through her counsel, that she would not be making any representations in response to the Notice. I then provided the appellants with a Notice of Inquiry and received their submissions, which were shared, in their entirety, with the Ministry. I note that the appellants acknowledge in their representations that Record 4, the SIU's report to the Attorney General, is properly exempt under section 14(2)(a) and is not, therefore, subject to the "public interest override" provisions in section 23 of the Act . Accordingly, I will not be addressing this document further in this order. Because the appellants' representations made reference to the possible application of section 23 to the other records, the Ministry was given the opportunity to make submissions by way of reply to this issue alone. The Ministry provided me with reply representations addressing this section. DISCUSSION: PERSONAL INFORMATION Under section 2(1) of the Act , "personal information" is defined, in part, to mean recorded information about an identifiable individual. I have reviewed the records to determine if they contain personal information and, if so, to whom the personal information relates, and I make the following findings: Records 1, 6, 7, 18 and 18a contain the personal information of the appellants, along with that of other identifiable individuals, including the deceased and the affected person. Record 7a contains only the personal information of the appellants. Records 2, 3, 8, 10/11, 12/13, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23 and 26 and photographs 25 to 45 in Records 14 and 27 contain the personal information of the affected person, the deceased and various other identifiable individuals, though not that of the appellants. Records 5, 9, 14 (other than photographs 25 to 45), 19, 24, 25 and 27 (other than photographs 25 to 45) do not contain any information which qualifies as "personal information" within the definition of that term in section 2(1). I note that Records 5 and 24 do not contain any personal information. Accordingly, they do not qualify for exemption under sections 21(1) or 49(b). As no other exemptions have been applied to these records by the Ministry and no mandatory exemptions apply I will order that they be disclosed to the appellants. I have found above that Record 7a contains only the personal information of the appellants. Accordingly, the disclosure of this record would not result in an unjustified invasion of another identifiable individual's personal privacy under either section 21(1) or 49(b). As no other exemptions have been claimed for this record, I order that it be disclosed to the appellants. In addition, I have found above that Records 1, 6, 7, 18 and 18a contain the personal information of the appellants, as well as that of other identifiable individuals. I find that the information contained in these records which relates s
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Legislation
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FIPPA
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21(3)(b)
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Section 23
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Subject Index
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Signed by
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Donald Hale
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Published
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Sep 29, 2000
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Type
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Order
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