Canadian Privacy Decisions

The complainant alleged that a federal institution had failed to respond to an access request within the prescribed time limit, resulting in a deemed refusal. The Information Commissioner found the complaint inadmissible because it was not submitted within the 60-day time limit required by section 31 of the Access to Information Act. The Commissioner determined that the complainant's awareness of the deemed refusal began when the institution first failed to meet the statutory deadline, not on the date the complaint was filed.

• Timeliness of complaint submission under section 31 of the ATIA
• Definition of 'day on which the requester becomes aware' for deemed refusals
• Interpretation of 'ongoing' or 'continuing' deemed refusals
• Applicability of Federal Court and OIC precedent on complaint timeliness

The Information Commissioner of Canada gave notice that she ceased investigating seventeen complaints. The complainant alleged that an institution's time extensions on seventeen access requests were unreasonable. However, the Commissioner found the requests were vexatious and substantively duplicative of a previous request where the institution's time extension was deemed reasonable. The Commissioner also noted the institution was providing interim responses as committed, and the complainant's actions suggested an attempt to circumvent previous findings.

• Whether the complaints were vexatious
• Whether further investigation was unnecessary
• Whether the requests were duplicative of a previous request
• Whether the complainant was attempting to circumvent previous findings

The complainant filed a complaint with the Information Commissioner's office regarding an access to information request. The institution provided its response in October 2021, including a notice that the complainant had sixty days to file a complaint. The complainant submitted their complaint in January 2022, which was outside the mandated timeframe. The Information Commissioner rejected the complaint because it was filed after the statutory deadline.

• Timeliness of complaint submission under section 31 of the ATIA
• Mandatory nature of statutory timeframes under the ATIA
• Commissioner's authority to extend statutory timeframes