Canadian privacy & access decisions

The complainant alleged that the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) took an unreasonable amount of time to respond to an access request for records related to its "Weighing Evidence" document. The IRB claimed a 1,295-day extension, which would have pushed the response deadline to March 31, 2025. The Information Commissioner found that the IRB did not provide sufficient justification for the length of the extension, particularly regarding the time allocated for record review and approval processes. Consequently, the extension was deemed invalid, and the IRB was ordered to process the records as soon as possible, no later than April 18, 2023.

• Reasonableness of time extension claimed under paragraph 9(1)(a) of the ATIA
• Justification for allocated timeframes for record review and approval
• Whether concurrent processing of review stages is possible
• Calculation of time extension for large volume requests

The complainant alleged that Library and Archives Canada (LAC) improperly withheld information under subsection 15(1) of the Access to Information Act. The request was for historical documents concerning the defence of the Arctic region. The Information Commissioner found that LAC failed to demonstrate how disclosing the records would harm national security or the defence of Canada, especially given that similar information has been publicly disclosed by Canada and the United States. The Commissioner recommended that LAC disclose the records in their entirety, and LAC agreed to implement this recommendation.

• Whether subsection 15(1) of the ATIA was properly applied to withhold historical records.
• Whether the disclosure of the records could reasonably be expected to harm national security or the defence of Canada.
• Whether LAC provided sufficient evidence to justify the continued withholding of information.
• The relevance of prior disclosures of similar information by Canada and the United States.