CITATION: City of Ottawa v. Ontario, 2010 ONSC 6835 DIVISIONAL COURT FILE NO.: 201/10 DATE: 20101213 ONTARIO SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE DIVISIONAL COURT JENNINGS, MOLLOY and DALEY JJ. ) ) CITY OF OTTAWA ) Applicant ) ) ) - and ) ) ONTARIO (INFORMATION AND ) PRIVACY COMMISSIONER) and ) JOHN DUNN ) Respondents ) ) ) ) ) B E T W E E N: Priscilla Platt and Brad Elberg, for the Applicant David Goodis and Allison Knight, for the Respondent Ontario (Information and Privacy Commissioner) John Dunn, in person HEARD: December 7, 2010 in Toronto MOLLOY J.: REASONS FOR DECISION A. INTRODUCTION [1] When a government employee uses his workplace email address to send and receive personal emails completely unrelated to his work, are those emails subject to disclosure to members of the public who request them under freedom of information legislation? That is the central issue raised by this judicial review application. [2] The City of Ottawa was of the view that the personal emails of one of its employees were not within its “custody or control” within the meaning of the applicable legislation and refused a request to disclose them. On appeal, the Information and Privacy Commissioner took the opposite view, ruled that the emails were subject to the legislation, and ordered the City to process the application for disclosure. The City of Ottawa seeks judicial review of that decision (Order MO-2408, which is dated April 9, 2009).