Complaint: Staff at the National Gallery of Canada may have destroyed records and/or counselled others to destroy records that may have been responsive to a request (an offence under section 67.1).

Investigation: The OIC found that responsive records had been destroyed, since employees had the ability (since disabled) to permanently delete emails. In addition, the OIC found that individuals had been counselled to destroy records while processing the request.

Outcome: The Commissioner referred this matter to the Attorney General of Canada as a breach of the Act. The National Gallery amended its policies and procedures on computer and email use, and made them available on its intranet. It also directed managers to familiarize themselves with the policies and to educate employees on them. These policies were also included in new employee orientation training.

Information Commissioner’s position:

• Institutions are responsible for fully training employees on their access to information and information management policies and practices so they know and understand their legal obligations. The training must be offered consistently to existing employees and feature prominently in new employee orientation. Corporate direction and monitoring are required.
• In this case, the majority of non-information technology staff had not received computer use and email training, contributing to their being unaware of both the proper use of email, retention and disposal policies, and their obligations under the Act.