|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Document
|
|
MO-1429
|
|
|
|
|
|
Institution/HIC
|
|
City of Toronto
|
|
|
|
|
|
Summary
|
|
NATURE OF THE APPEAL: The City of Toronto (the City ) received a request under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act ) for access to ambulance and police records pertaining to a 911 call and a sudden death. The requesters, parents of the deceased individual, specifically sought information on the ambulance and police response and departure times, their daughter's condition at the time, a "description of procedures administered", and "any pertinent details". The City located 1 responsive record which consists of 8 pages of Ambulance Call Reports and an attachment. The City granted access to the attachment only. In denying access to the Ambulance Call Reports, it relied on the exemption in section 14(1) (invasion of privacy) of the Act. The request for police records was transferred to the Toronto Police Services Board. The requesters, now the appellants, appealed the City's decision. During mediation of this appeal, the appellants received from the City and other named agencies the times of the 911 calls, the response times for the police, and the time the ambulance left the station and departed for the hospital. I sent a Notice of Inquiry (the Notice) to the City initially, setting out the facts and issues in this appeal. The City returned a response and in it indicated that the ambulance arrival time at the scene had been disclosed to the appellants. The Notice was then sent to the appellants, together with the City's complete representations. The outstanding issues remaining in dispute are the condition of the appellants' daughter upon arrival of the ambulance, a description of the medical procedures administered, and any other pertinent details in the Ambulance Call Reports. RECORDS: The record at issue in this appeal consists of two Ambulance Call Reports totalling 8 pages. DISCUSSION: The nature of the appellants' request and appeal is not unusual. Other decisions of this office have dealt with attempts by the bereaved relatives of a deceased person to gain access to information about the circumstances of the death. It is not uncommon for such requests, as in the situation before me, to be made essentially for the purpose of greater understanding of the tragic event. In Order MO-1320, which dealt with a request for information from the Police relating to a sudden death, Adjudicator Sherry Liang stated: My role is to interpret and apply the provisions of the Act, which governs the release of information by, among others, the Police. In reviewing the decision of the Police, I am also governed by the Act, and I cannot substitute my own views on the fairness and merits of the appellants' request where the Act provides a clear direction. In the 1999 Annual Report of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, the Commissioner recommended statutory changes which would recognize the needs of grieving families, and remove restrictions from the Act preventing them from having greater access to information about the death of a loved one. Part of that report states: Of the various types of appeals processed by the IPC, those involving a request for information about a deceased family member are among the most sensitive. Requests of this type are submitted to institutions (most often to local police forces or the Ontario Provincial Police) by immediate family members, or their representatives, in order to obtain information surrounding the circumstances of the relative's death. Except in certain limited circumstances, institutions must deny relatives access to this information because disclosure is presumed to be an unjustified invasion of the deceased's personal privacy under the provincial and municipal Acts. .... A statutory amendment to address this sensitive and compelling issue is clearly required, and would be supported by a broad cross section of stakeholders: requesters and appellants; Freedom of Information and Privacy Co-ordinators in both the provincial and municipal sectors, including the police community; professionals in the field of grief counseling; and the IPC. Specific language for a new subsection for section 21 (section 14 of the municipal Act) is included in the Commissioner's Recommendations section, which follows this review of key issues. While hopefully in the future the Act will be amended to reflect the recommendations of the Commissioner, I must apply the Act as it stands today. PERSONAL INFORMATION The first issue to be determined is whether the record contains personal information and if so, to whom that personal information relates. Under section 2(1) of the Act , "personal information" is defined as "recorded information about an identifiable individual". The City submits that the Ambulance Call Reports contain details about the physical and medical condition of the appellants' daughter as observed and evaluated by the ambulance crew and the medical treatment she received. As all the information contained in the record pertains to the appellants' daughter, the information is "about" an identifiable individual [paragraph (b)], and falls within the definition of "personal information". The daughter has been deceased for less then thirty years, therefore, the information in the record qualifies as the daughter's personal information. INVASION OF PRIVACY Introduction Where a requester seeks personal information of other individuals, section 14(1) of the Act prohibits an institution from disclosing this information unless disclosure would not constitute an unjustified invasion of the personal privacy of these individuals. Sections 14(2) and (3) of the Act provide guidance in determining whether disclosure of personal information would result in an unjustified invasion of the personal privacy of the individual to whom the information relates. Section 14(2) pr
|
|
|
|
|
|
Legislation
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Subject Index
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Published
|
|
May 11, 2001
|
|
|
|
|
|
Type
|
|
Order
|
|
|
|
|
|
<<
Back
|
|
|
|
Back to Top
|
 |
|
|
|
© Copyright
2013
Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. All Rights Reserved.
|