Letter to the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics (ETHI) (June 2024)
June 3, 2024
John Brassard, M.P.
Chair of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics (ETHI)
Sixth Floor, 131 Queen Street
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
Dear Mr. Chair:
I am writing to follow up on items mentioned during my appearance before ETHI on May 16, 2024. I am thankful for the committee’s continued interest in access to information and government transparency.
One of the questions raised during my appearance related to my involvement in litigation. I can report that since the beginning of my mandate in March 2018, I have been involved in 53 legal proceedings. I am including detailed information in the annex.
Since the 2019 amendments to the Access to Information Act, I may make any order that I consider appropriate to resolve the matters at issue in well-founded complaints submitted to my office on or after June 21, 2019. For complaints submitted before that date, I can only make recommendations.
Institutions are legally obliged to abide by my orders. That said, they have the right to challenge my orders by applying to the Federal Court for a review of the matter that is the subject of the orders. If institutions do not, however, comply with my order or ask the Federal Court for a review, I can file an application for a writ of mandamus. A writ of mandamus is an extraordinary remedy asking a court to order a public authority to perform a legal duty.
As I explained during my previous appearance before the committee, the process of obtaining a writ of mandamus expends my office’s resources and those of institutions that are deploying their own legal resources to respond to these applications. This should not be necessary since my orders are supposed to be legally binding.
On the topic of resources, I would like to provide an update on my office’s budget shortfall, which I outlined in my opening remarks on May 16. I met with the Acting Secretary of the Treasury Board the day after my appearance at ETHI and our officials are pursuing discussions regarding my office’s funding needs. I will keep the committee informed of any significant developments on this matter.
Should you or any member of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics have any questions following this letter, please have the committee staff contact Manon Côté, my Manager of Parliamentary and Stakeholders Relations, by email (manon.cote@oic-ci.gc.ca).
Sincerely,
Caroline Maynard
Information Commissioner of Canada
c.c.:
Mr. Darren Fisher, Vice-Chair
Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics
Mr. René Villemure, Vice-Chair
Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics
Ms. Nancy Vohl, Clerk
Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics
Annex
- The first order to be challenged was in 2022-2023. For earlier fiscal years, different litigation categories are presented in the graph below.
Text version
| Orders Challenged (Deemed Refusal) | Orders Challenged (Refusal) | Mandamus | Others | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 2023-2024 | 16 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| 2024-2025 (as of May 16, 2024) | 3 | 2 |
- Both graphs present the number of legal proceedings initiated for each fiscal year. Some remain active for more than one year.
Text version
| Initiated by a complainant (section 41) - Information Commissioner a party | Initiated by the Information Commissioner (section 42) | Initiated by a third party (section 44) - Information Commissioner a party | Others | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-2019 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019-2020 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 2020-2021 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| 2021-2022 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |