Federal (Canada) privacy & access decisions

The complainant, a father involved in a custody dispute, submitted an ATIP request to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) for his minor child's passport application, which had been submitted by his former spouse. He provided a court order authorizing him to obtain his children's information from third parties. IRCC denied the request, stating that the child's consent was required. The complainant alleged that IRCC improperly denied access despite the court order. The OPC investigated whether the complainant had a right of access under paragraph 10(a) of the Privacy Regulations, which allows access on behalf of a minor under certain conditions. The OPC found that while the child was a minor and the complainant had legal authorization to administer the child's affairs, the request was not made on the child's behalf, but rather for the complainant's own interests. Therefore, the third condition of paragraph 10(a) was not met, and IRCC's denial was deemed reasonable.

• Whether the complainant had a right of access to his child’s personal information under section 10 of the Privacy Regulations
• Whether the child was a minor at the time of the ATIP request
• Whether the complainant had legal authorization to administer the child's affairs
• Whether the complainant exercised the right of access on the minor’s behalf
• Whether the child had the decision-making capacity to provide consent for the release of their personal information

A representative, on behalf of a deceased member's estate executor, requested personal information from the Department of National Defence (DND) related to an investigation into allegations against the deceased. DND processed the request informally and disclosed some information under subparagraph 8(2)(m)(i) of the Privacy Act, but did not explicitly state its refusal to process the request formally under paragraph 10(b) of the Privacy Regulations. The OPC investigated whether the representative was entitled to make the request for the purpose of administering the estate. The OPC found that while the representative was authorized to administer the estate, they did not sufficiently demonstrate a connection between the requested information and the administration of the estate. Therefore, the complaint was not well-founded, as the representative failed to meet the requirements of paragraph 10(b) of the Regulations.

• Whether the representative was authorized to make a request on behalf of the deceased under paragraph 10(b) of the Regulations
• Whether the request related only to the administration of the deceased's estate under paragraph 10(b) of the Regulations
• Whether DND complied with section 16 of the Privacy Act regarding refusal notifications
• Whether DND properly processed the request informally without explicit written consent and notification of rights