Decision pursuant to 6.1, 2023 OIC 49

An institution applied for approval to decline to act on three access requests, arguing they were made in bad faith and constituted an abuse of the right to access information. The requests sought records containing a list of offensive words over a three-year period. The Commissioner found that the institution had fulfilled its duty to assist the requester and that the requests, due to their breadth, volume, and the specific keywords used, were indeed an abuse of the right of access, warranting approval to decline acting on them.

• Whether the institution met its duty to assist the requester.
• Whether the access requests constituted an abuse of the right to access information.
• The appropriateness of using vulgar and offensive keywords in access requests.
• The cumulative burden of multiple requests from the same requester.