Complaint: After being instructed by the Federal Court to reasonably exercise its discretion to release information under subsection 15(1), Transport Canada again decided to withhold the information.

Investigation: Over the course of the investigation, Transport Canada provided convincing evidence that it had exercised its discretion reasonably at the time of its second decision to protect the information.

Outcome: Nevertheless, the Commissioner closed the complaint as well founded, given that the new decision was written in such a way that it was impossible for the requester to have understood that Transport Canada had exercised its discretion properly. The Commissioner also concluded that, in providing such a response, the institution had contravened its obligation to make every reasonable effort to assist the requester.

Information Commissioner’s position:

• The duty to assist requires institutions’ responses to requesters to be intelligible. Given the direction of the Federal Court in this case, Transport Canada’s response should have included the specific factors it considered in exercising its discretion anew.