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Document
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M-927
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File #
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M-9600365
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Institution/HIC
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Renfrew Police Services Board
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Summary
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The appellant's son died in a car accident which was investigated by theRenfrew Police Service. Under the Municipal Freedom of Information andProtection of Privacy Act (the Act ), the appellant submitted arequest for information about the accident to the County of Oxford. Thisrequest was forwarded to the Renfrew Police Services Board (the Police) inaccordance with section 18(2) of the Act . In particular, the appellant sought access to: the coroner's report all police officers' notes and reports all witness statements all photographs taken the accident report the hospital's medical report, and any other documents and/or measurements related to the accident. In essence, this is a request for the investigation file compiled by thePolice and related officers' notebook entries. The appellant did not receive a response to this request within thethirty-day period contemplated in the Act . In this situation, section22(4) indicates that the Police are deemed to have given a notice of refusal togrant access, which gives rise to a right of appeal. On this basis, the appellant filed an appeal of this "deemed refusal"to grant access. As a result, this office opened Appeal M-9600337. During theprocessing of that appeal, the Police issued a decision in response to therequest. As a result, Appeal M-9600337 was closed. In their decision, the Police denied access to the requested records. Theyadvised the appellant that he did not qualify to make the request under section54(a) of the Act (which allows the exercise of a deceased individual'srights or powers under the Act by the individual's personalrepresentative if exercise of the right or power relates to the administrationof the individual's estate). The Police went on to indicate that the withheld information is exempt fromdisclosure under the following sections of the Act : invasion of privacy - section 14(1) law enforcement - sections 8(1)(a) and (b), section 8(2)(a). Once he had received this letter, the appellant indicated that he disagreedwith the exemptions claimed, and also that additional responsive records shouldexist. As a result, this office opened the present appeal file (M-9600365). Inconnection with this appeal, this office sent a Notice of Inquiry to theappellant, the Police and the other driver involved in the accident (who will bereferred to throughout this order as "the other driver"). This noticedealt with the issue of whether the above-noted exemptions apply to the recordsat issue and whether additional records exist. In response to this notice, thePolice and the appellant submitted representations. In their representations, the Police referred to the exemption provided bysection 8(2)(c) of the Act , which they did not mention in their decision letter. In addition,subsequent to the submission of the representations of the Police, the appellantmade a complaint under Part VI of the Police Services Act against theofficers who investigated the accident. As a result, the Police now claim thatthe records at issue are outside the scope of the Act because of section52(3). This section indicates that the Act does not apply to certainrecords relating to employment and labour relations. As a result of these developments, this office sent a Supplementary Noticeof Inquiry to the appellant and the Police. This notice was not sent to theother driver, because the earlier notice sent to him had been returned by CanadaPost. The supplementary notice invited the parties to make submissions on: (1)whether the Police should be permitted to raise section 8(2)(c) at thisstage of the proceedings; (2)if so, whether section 8(2)(c) applies, and (3)whether section 52(3) applies to exclude the records from the scope ofthe Act . Both the appellant and the Police submitted representations in response tothe supplementary notice.
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Legislation
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MFIPPA
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14(1)(a)
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14(1)(f)
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14(3)(b)
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52(3)1
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54(a)
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8(1)(a)
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8(1)(b)
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8(2)(a)
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Section 16
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Subject Index
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Signed by
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John Higgins
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Published
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Apr 16, 1997
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Type
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Order
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© Copyright
2013
Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. All Rights Reserved.
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