Canadian Privacy Decisions

An institution applied to the Information Commissioner for approval to decline to act on an access request, claiming it was vexatious and an abuse of the right to access records. The institution noted the requester had submitted 893 requests over 17 years, many similar to the current one. The Commissioner found that 11 of the requests were duplicative and that the requester had not provided justification for resubmitting them. The Commissioner concluded that the volume and repetitive nature of the requests, combined with the requester's history of complaints, amounted to an abuse of the right of access.

• Whether the access request was vexatious
• Whether the access request constituted an abuse of the right to access records
• Whether the institution met the threshold for declining to act on the request