It was a privilege to speak last week to all of the attendees of the Freedom of Information Police Network (FOIPN) Fall Conference at the Belleville Police Service Headquarters in Belleville, Ontario.
I was asked to deliver a presentation on the Absurd Result Principle, a legal principle with a long history in the Canadian and English legal systems. The principle has been especially relevant to Freedom of Information ever since the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPCO) employed it to nullify portions of Ontario’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) and our Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA), under certain circumstances.
Under s.49 of FIPPA and s.38 of MFIPPA, institutions may use their discretion to decide not to disclose a requestor’s own personal information if the disclosure would also constitute “an unjustified invasion of another individual’s personal privacy”.
In the past, institutions have relied on these exemptions to refuse to disclose records even where such records were originally created or submitted to the institution by the requestor.
IPCO has taken the position that withholding records in this situation may lead to an “absurd result”, and therefore, despite the clear language of s.49 of FIPPA and s.38 of MFIPPA, institutions may not be permitted to rely on these exemptions in this situation.
Of course, the devil is in the details!
As part of my presentation to the FOIPN, I prepared a slide deck which provides an overview of the Absurd Result Principle and its origins, then summarizes relevant IPCO decisions to help Ontario FOI professionals understand how the Absurd Result Principle is being applied today.
This slide deck is intended to serve as useful reference material for any FOI professional hoping to learn more about the Absurd Result Principle, as well as those who are in the process of applying it to a specific request. It can be a great resource to keep handy for whenever the right type of request comes along—specifically, where a requestor is seeking records they themselves created or submitted to the institution, where such records contain someone else’s personal information. (Although, as you will see in the deck, this isn’t the only situation in which the Absurd Result Principle may apply.)
I hope you will find this slide deck useful and informative. If you have any questions about this deck, the Absurd Result Principle, or the FOI Assist software, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
The FOI Assist Software
Are you still processing FOI requests manually? You owe it to your institution to check out the FOI Assist software. Demonstrations of the FOI Assist software are conducted via videoconference and take approximately one hour.
To not take a serious look at software that reduces the time and stress involved in processing FOI requests, while increasing your compliance and the quality of your work output—now THAT would be an absurd result! Request a demo now.
FOI Assist 