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Summary
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Legal Aid Ontario
Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) is an independent agency that was established in late 1998 under the Legal Aid Services Act, 1998 (the LSA). As part of its statutory mandate, LAO provides legal aid services by a number of different methods, including certificates, staff offices, duty counsel, community legal clinics, public legal education, summary assistance, alternative dispute resolution and self-help materials. There are legal aid offices in 48 communities across the province.
Background of the Complaint
A couple visited the Windsor legal aid office for a meeting, and were asked to wait in a conference room. The wife was looking for some scratch paper to make notes, and found a stack of stapled sheets of paper by the telephone. She noticed that the backs of these sheets contained various pieces of information, including the names, telephone numbers, birth dates and SIN numbers of individuals, an indication as to whether those individuals were applying for legal aid, and whether they had ever applied before.
After reviewing the sheets to ensure that none of them contained any personal information of either herself or her husband, the wife kept nine sample sheets and later provided them to her local Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP).
The MPP wrote to this Office asking us to investigate the matter. We immediately initiated an investigation pursuant to our responsibilities under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act).
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