PO-2003

The appellant submitted a request to the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (the Ministry) under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act) for records relating to a named Private Investigators Training School (the school) and the school's owner.

The Ministry identified responsive records and notified both the school and its owner pursuant to section 28(1) of the Act in order to determine their views regarding disclosure. A lawyer representing the interests of both parties responded to the Ministry's notice and objected to the disclosure of any information. In doing so, the lawyer indicated that the owner and her corporation had in the past been subject to a "pattern of harassment" by certain students and instructors, which included the filing of a series of small claims court actions, which he indicated were dismissed after trial in May 2000. The lawyer indicated that the owner is concerned that this pattern will continue and, in particular, that disclosure of any information would lead to the continued harassment of her and her business interests. In this order, I will refer to the owner and the corporation, collectively as the "third party", making reference to each party separately only where such a distinction is necessary.

The Ministry subsequently issued a decision to the appellant in which it divided the request into eight parts, noting that records responsive to part one are exempt pursuant to section 22(a) of the Act in that they are publicly available on the Ministry's website (URL provided). The Ministry indicated further that no records exist with respect to parts three and eight of the request and that it would not respond to part seven, which was worded as a question. Finally, the Ministry indicated that it had located records responsive to parts two, four, five and six of the request and was denying access to this information in its entirety on the basis of section 20 of the Act (danger to safety or health).

...

• FIPPA
• Section 20
• 2(1)
• 17(1)

• business/personal information
• Threat to Safety or Health
• reasonable expectation of harm