Recent Articles
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Decoding the names of FOI decisions
What do the names of FOI decisions mean? The Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPCO) assigns a unique identifier to each decision made by its adjudicators. Generally, the identifier is a short string of letters and numbers, such as P-22, PO-2400, or MO-1508. But in the early days of IPCO, orders were identified with…
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Update: FOI Flowcharts have been sent (copies are still available)
If you requested a poster-sized printed copy of the FOI Flowchart, it has now been sent. Keep an eye on your incoming mail, as the posters will be arriving shortly. If you are an FOI professional in Ontario and you haven’t seen the FOI Flowchart yet, I suggest taking a look. It is available for…
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Receiving an FOI Request from a Lawyer
When you have received a Freedom Of Information (FOI) request from a lawyer, there are a few things to consider: Is your organization obligated to respond to FOI requests? An earlier article, Do I have to respond to a Freedom Of Information (FOI) request?, may help you answer this question. Keep in mind this guidance applies only…
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Requests for Personal Information with the Consent of the Individual
Institutions are sometimes faced with a request from someone who purports to be acting on behalf or with the consent of the individual whose personal information is being requested. The requestor in this case may be a lawyer, insurance company, or agent, or it may simply be a friend a relative who is helping the…
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Verifying the Identity of the Requestor
The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Manual (the “FOI Manual”) notes that when a requestor asks an institution for the requestor’s own personal information, the institution must first verify the identity of the requestor before any personal information is disclosed. The FOI Manual suggests that an institution may be able to fulfill the…
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The FOI Request Process Poster
I’ve created a “flowchart” poster which describes the entire process of answering an FOI request for records under Ontario’s Freedom Of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) as well as under Ontario’s Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA).
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Leave no paper trail?
“Family minister’s foster care review instructions leave no paper trail” Katie Nicholson, Joanne Levasseur · CBC News · Posted: Feb 20, 2019 4:00 AM CT The article above appeared on the CBC website just this morning. I think it offers an important lesson to institutions who may be tempted to avoid keeping appropriate written records as a way of limiting their…
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How many FOI requests should my institution expect to receive?
Every year, the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPCO) publishes a statistical report which shows how many FOI requests each institution in Ontario received in a given year, as well as other statistics related to the performance of each institution’s FOI program, such as how many requests were completed in a given year, how…
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The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Manuals
Wait — there’s more than one? When I was asked to manage the FOI program at the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games, I spent the first few weeks interpreting FIPPA directly using only David Goodis’s excellent annotated Act. My life got a whole lot easier when I discovered the Ministry of Government Services’ Freedom of Information…
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When is an FOI Request Frivolous or Vexatious?
FOI Assist presented a free live seminar on the topic of Frivolous and Vexatious Requests on March 24, 2026. View the seminar recap using the link below: FOI Assist Seminar Series: Frivolous and Vexatious Requests Besides the exemptions and exceptions available under Ontario’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) and the Municipal…
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Exemptions vs. Exclusions: What is the difference?
Ontario’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) and its Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA) both provide members of the public with a general right of access to government information, subject to certain exclusions and exemptions. But what is the difference between an “exemption” and an “exclusion”? In…
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The 2018-2019 Annotated Ontario Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Acts by David Goodis
The Annotated Ontario Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Acts by David Goodis is the go-to guide to Ontario’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) as well as to Ontario’s Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA). The 2018-2019 edition just came out this week and my copy…
FOI Assist Knowledge Base 