The complainant alleged that Transport Canada had improperly withheld under subsection 19(1) (personal information) and paragraph 20(1)(b) (confidential third-party financial, commercial, scientific or technical information) of the Access to Information Act portions of the Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Report, dated August 25, 2016, into the death of a Canadian National Railway (CN) employee. The complaint falls within paragraph 30(1)(a) of the Act.

Certain information did not meet the requirements of subsection 19(1), including train numbers, track numbers, locations and information found within witness statements where disclosure would not create a serious possibility of identification of the witnesses.

The institution and the third party did not demonstrate that any of the information met all four requirements of paragraph 20(1)(b).

The Information Commissioner ordered that Transport Canada disclose specific information withheld under subsection 19(1), consider whether its discretion was triggered under paragraph 19(2)(c) and if so excersize its discretion reasonably and disclose the information withheld under paragraph 20(1)(b) where such information does not meet the requirements of subsection 19(1).

Transport Canada gave notice that it would be implementing the order.

The complaint is well founded.