The Toronto Police Services Board (the Police) received a request under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act). The request, made by legal counsel on behalf of the victim of an assault, was for any occurrence reports or witness statements relating to a police investigation of the assault. For ease of reference, I will refer to the victim of the assault, rather than his counsel, as the appellant. Because the responsive record appeared to contain the personal information of other identifiable individuals (the affected persons), the Police were required, under section 21(1), to notify the affected persons in order to seek their consent to the disclosure of the information contained in the record to the appellant.

Following receipt of the submissions of the affected persons, the Police granted the appellant access to portions of the record. The Police denied access to the remainder of the record, based on the application of the mandatory exemption contained in section 14(1) of the Act (invasion of privacy), with reference to the presumption in section 14(3)(b). The Police also advised the appellant that portions of two pages of the record contained information which was not responsive to the request. In addition, the Police advised that they were unable to locate the notebook containing entries made by one of the investigating police officers.