The complainant alleged that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) improperly withheld information under subsection 19(1) (personal information) of the Access to Information Act about a follow-up investigation related to a Code of Conduct decision taken against the complainant.

The RCMP conceded that some of the withheld information did not constitute personal information and issued a supplementary release in January 2021 while maintaining the application of subsection 19(1) on the remaining information. As a result, the complaint is well founded.  The Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) concluded that the remaining withheld information was personal information that concerned another individual, therefore meeting the requirements of the exemption. The OIC was also satisfied that the circumstances set out in subsection 19(2) did not exist. Consequently, there was no need to determine whether the RCMP had exercised its discretion to decide whether to release the remaining information.