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Document
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M-615
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Institution/HIC
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Toronto Board of Education
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Summary
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NATURE OF THE APPEAL: This is an appeal under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act ). The appellant submitted a request to the Toronto Board of Education (the Board) for access to the following: (1) copies of handwritten notes and any rewritten versions, pertaining to five specified meetings at a school attended by the appellant's daughter (these meetings were attended by the appellant and his wife, several school officials, and in one case, other parents); (2) copies of all records containing any reference to the meetings referred to in item (1); (3) copies of all records containing the name of the appellant, his wife or daughter, "... for the year 1995". The meetings referred to in items (1) and (2) pertained to the conduct of a teacher (referred to in this order as "the teacher") which the appellant and his family found objectionable. The teacher was subsequently disciplined by the Board and no longer teaches at the school. The Board identified a number of responsive records and issued a decision letter to the appellant, including an index of records. The Board granted access to eight responsive records. Access to another five records was denied under the following exemption in the Act : invasion of privacy - section 14(1). The decision letter also stated that the Board "... relies on section 14(5) of the [ Act ] in refusing to confirm or deny whether records additional to those listed on the index exist." The appellant filed an appeal of this decision with the Commissioner's office. The letter of appeal objected to the denial of access, and to the lack of responsive records identified with regard to two of the meetings referred to in the request. The appellant also queried why there was no internal documentation relating to his family's frequent correspondence with the Board. These comments about the possible existence of additional records raise the issue of whether the Board conducted a reasonable search. During the appeals process, the Board identified two further responsive records and granted access to one of them. The other newly discovered record, which the Board decided not to disclose, includes notes from one of the meetings mentioned in the request (namely, the meeting on January 24, 1995) for which notes were not previously located. The Board is not refusing to confirm or deny the existence of this record, and I will include it in my review of the Board's denial of access. A Notice of Inquiry was sent to the appellant, the Board and five affected persons. One of the affected persons is the teacher, and the other four are individuals who attended one or more of the meetings referred to in the request. Because the records appear to contain the appellant's personal information, the Notice of Inquiry raised the possible application of section 38(b) of the Act . This section provides a discretionary exemption which may apply where disclosure of a record containing the requester's own personal information would be an unjustified invasion of the personal privacy of another individual or individuals. In response to the Notice of Inquiry, representations were received from the appellant, the Board and the teacher. The first issue in this appeal is the Board's denial of access to undisclosed records whose existence has been confirmed to the appellant. These consist of the undisclosed records which the Board identified in its index prepared at the request stage, and the additional undisclosed record discovered during the appeal (as mentioned above). Collectively, these records will be referred to in this order as "the records at issue". They all consist of meeting notes. More particularly, the records at issue are as follows: Record 1a: Handwritten meeting notes dated January 13, 1995 (partly in shorthand) Record 1b: Typed transcript of Record 1a Record 2: Meeting notes dated February 8, 1995 Record 3: Meeting notes dated February 13, 1995 Record 4: Meeting notes (different author than Record 3) dated February 13, 1995 Record 5: Meeting notes dated January 23, 24 and 25, 1994 (the undisclosed record discovered during the appeals process). Another issue to be decided in this appeal is the Board's decision to refuse to confirm or deny the existence of additional records under section 14(5). In addition, the question of whether the Board conducted a reasonable search for responsive records must be considered. DISCUSSION: INVASION OF PRIVACY Under section 2(1) of the Act , "personal information" is defined, in part, to mean recorded information about an identifiable individual, including the individual's name where it appears with other personal information relating to the individual or where the disclosure of the name would reveal other personal information about the individual. I have reviewed the records at issue to determine whether they contain personal information and if so, to whom the personal information relates. The Board argues that the records do not contain personal information of the appellant or his wife, since the references to them in the records do not reveal any other information about them. I do not agree with this view. In my opinion, the fact that the appellant attended these meetings is revealed by these records, and constitutes his personal information. On this basis, I find that all the records at issue contain personal information pertaining to the appellant, who was in attendance at each of the meetings documented in the records. Records 1a, 1b, 2 and 4 also document the appellant's wife's attendance at the meetings being recorded, and several comments she made. I find that this constitutes her personal information. Records 3 and 4, which record a meeting at which other parents were present, also contain the personal information of these other parents and, in some cases, their children. Record 5 also contains the personal information of a child other than the appellant's daughter, pertaining to a classroom incident. In addition, all of the records at issue contain personal information pe
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Legislation
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MFIPPA
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14(2)(a)
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14(2)(d)
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14(2)(e)
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14(2)(f)
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14(2)(g)
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14(2)(h)
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14(2)(i)
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14(3)(d)
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14(5)
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Subject Index
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Published
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Oct 17, 1995
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Type
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Order
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2013
Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. All Rights Reserved.
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