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Ottawa of all “emails, letters and faxes” sent or received by Mr. O’Connor to and from anyone at
CAS3 since February, 2007.
[9]
The City Clerk responded on December 6, 2007, stating that: the communications did not
relate to Mr. O’Connor’s duties as City Solicitor, but rather to his role with CAS; the documents
were not within the City’s custody or control and fall outside the scope of MFIPPA; and therefore
the City would not be processing his request.
[10] Mr. Dunn appealed to the Information and Privacy Commissioner (“IPC”) and a hearing was
conducted before Adjudicator Catherine Corbin. By this point, the original request (which had led
to the identification of 417 pages of records as falling within the category of documents sought), had
through the process of mediation and without prejudice consensual disclosure, been reduced to six
pages. All are emails sent by the Executive Director of CAS to various CAS personnel including Mr.
O’Connor. None have anything to do with the business of the City of Ottawa.
C.
THE DECISION OF THE ARBITRATOR
[11] The Arbitrator’s analysis of the issue before her covers approximately four pages of her
decision, of which two pages are extensive quotations from two other IPC decisions.
[12] The Arbitrator began her analysis by referring to established authority that a “purposive
approach must be taken to ‘custody or control’ questions” under s. 4(1) of the Act. That is a correct
statement of the law, but this statement is the extent of her analysis of it.
[13] The Arbitrator then correctly noted that possession of documents is not necessarily
determinative, stating that bare possession of documents is not sufficient in the absence of
responsibility for the care and protection of them. She cited with approval, the decision of former
Commissioner Sidney Linden in Order 120 and set out a list of factors he identified as relevant to
the consideration of whether an institution has “care or control” of a document.
[14] Next, the Arbitrator cited as being particularly relevant the decision in Order PO-1725, which
involved a request for access to an electronic agenda of an employee at the Premier’s office, which
contained both governmental and personal appointments.
[15] Finally, the Arbitrator considered the relevant factors identified by Commissioner Linden and
concluded that the weight of those factors supported a finding that the emails in this case were within
the custody and/or control of the City. In particular, the Arbitrator found it persuasive that: (1) the
City had physical possession of the emails on its server; (2) the City had the authority to regulate the
email system and could not divest itself of its responsibility by choosing not to exercise control over
a particular type of record; and (3) since the City has the right to monitor the emails on its system
for unauthorized use, any emails on the system at any given time are within the City’s control, even
if the City has not actually accessed or used them.
3
Various individuals and addresses are specified in the request, but all appear to be CAS related and to involve
Mr. O’Connor.