Decisions

The complainant alleged that the Privy Council Office (PCO) did not conduct a reasonable search in response to an access request under the Access to Information Act for records related to the review of the Canadian intelligence program carried out by the Intelligence Advisory Committee (IAC) for consideration by the Cabinet Committee for Security and Intelligence (CCSI), between January 1972 and June 1975.

The allegation falls within paragraph 30(1)(a) of the Act.

The investigation determined that the Offices of Primary Interest did not retrieve all relevant records when they were tasked to do so. PCO was unable to show that it conducted a reasonable search for all of the records responsive to the access request. The Office of the Information Commissioner asked PCO to conduct a subsequent search for all relevant records. As a result, 265 additional pages of responsive records were identified.

The Information Commissioner ordered that PCO provide a subsequent response to the access request by March 18, 2025.

PCO gave notice to the Commissioner that it would be implementing the order.

The complaint is well founded.

An institution submitted an application seeking the Information Commissioner’s approval to decline to act on an access request under subsection 6.1(1) of the Access to Information Act. In the institution’s opinion, the access request constitutes an abuse of the right to make a request.

The Commissioner finds that the institution did not establish that the access request is an abuse of the right to make a request.

The application is denied.