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The Ministry of the Solicitor General (now the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services) (the Ministry) received a request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act), from a member of the media, for access to "all video footage recorded by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) at Ipperwash Provincial Park (Ipperwash) from September 5-7, 1995" and "all photos taken by the OPP at Ipperwash Provincial Park from September 5-7, 1995."
The Ministry identified a number of responsive videotapes and photographs, and denied access to all of them. The appellant appealed.
During the course of processing this appeal, the records were divided into four categories.
After conducting various inquiries under the Act, I issued two interim orders and one reconsideration order that dealt with all records in Categories 1, 2, and 3 (Interim Order PO-2033-I, Reconsideration Order PO-2063-R and Interim Order PO-2056-I).
Category 4, which dealt with videotaped surveillance records purportedly obtained under Parts VI and XV of the Criminal Code of Canada, was addressed in Final Order PO-2092-F. The Ministry had claimed that the Criminal Code prohibited disclosure of these records. I disagreed, and ordered the Ministry to make an access decision concerning them. The Ministry brought an application for judicial review of my decision. The appellant also brought an application for judicial review, seeking the immediate disclosure of the Category 4 records.
Both of these judicial review applications were subsequently abandoned. In the case of the Ministry's application, the reason for abandoning was that there are no warrants to support the Criminal Code arguments. The Ministry also advised the appellant that more responsive Category 2 records had been located.
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