Department of Justice Canada (Re), 2020 OIC 6
The complainant alleged that the Department of Justice Canada (Justice) failed to respond to an access request within the statutory time limits. The OIC had previously investigated a complaint regarding the same request and recommended a response by December 15, 2019. Justice did not accept this recommendation but committed to disclosing the records by April 27, 2020. When Justice failed to meet this extended deadline, a new complaint was filed. The Commissioner found that Justice was deemed to have refused access under subsection 10(3) of the Act due to its failure to provide records within the prescribed timeframes. Consequently, the complaint was found to be well founded, and Justice was ordered to respond to the access request by September 30, 2020.
- 1Whether the institution failed to respond to an access request within the time limits set out in the Act
- 2Whether the institution was deemed to have refused access pursuant to subsection 10(3) of the Act
- Timeliness / deemed refusal: Deemed refusal found
- Complaint status: Complaint well founded
- Disclosure order: Records ordered disclosed by deadline
Complaint well founded — disclosure ordered
The Department of Justice Canada failed to respond to the access request within the statutory time limits, and subsequently failed to meet its own committed disclosure date, leading to a deemed refusal of access under subsection 10(3) of the Act.
The Information Commissioner ordered the Department of Justice Canada to respond to the access request by September 30, 2020.
- s.10(3) ATIA
This summary is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
Related by meaning
Decisions with similar reasoning and facts — found by AI across statutes and jurisdictions, not just keywords.
Coverage — 13 of 14 jurisdictions searchable
Fully searchable: Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, New Brunswick, Manitoba.
Partial (recent decisions only): Federal (Canada) (651 of 1,631), Nova Scotia (49 of 472), Quebec (6 of 7,090), Prince Edward Island (2 of 279), Yukon (1 of 75).
Coming soon: Nunavut — being re-processed for AI search.
Find decisions like this one — by meaning, not keywords.
Related by meaning is a Pro feature. Upgrade to surface conceptually similar decisions across the corpus, powered by AI.
Upgrade to Pro