Supreme Court Affirms Broad Public Sector Decision-Making Privilege

Below is a post I wrote for All About Information regarding a significant decision rendered by the Supreme Court of Canada last Friday on the scope of the “advice and recommendations” exemption from disclosure found in the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act: “Yesterday the Supreme Court of Canada held that the “advice and recommendations” exemption…

Ontario Government Proposes New Public Sector Compensation Restraint Legislation

On Monday, March 24, 2014, the Ontario government introduced Bill 179, the Public Sector and MPP Accountability and Transparency Act, 2014. If passed, Bill 179 would give the government the authority to create comprehensive compensation frameworks for certain employers in the broader public sector (“BPS”), and would implement a number of measures to enhance “accountability…

Hicks Morley Information and Privacy Post – 2011/2012

Dear Friends: It’s late August 2012, and here’s what’s on our minds. Our Information and Privacy Post is back. This edition contains 61 case summaries relating to the protection of confidential business information, electronic evidence, freedom of information, privacy, privilege and production. It has been a remarkable year. Canadian privacy law, in particular, has made…

IPC/Ontario Issues Significant Order on Custody and Control of University Records under FIPPA

On November 7, 2011, the Information and Privacy Commissioner/Ontario (“IPC”) issued a significant order for Ontario universities. It held that the IPC has exclusive jurisdiction to decide whether a record is in the custody or control of a university in the context of an access request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy…

Hicks Morley Information and Privacy Highlights – Fall 2011

Welcome to the Fall 2011 Hicks Morley Information and Privacy Highlights! This second edition of our new re-vamped publication includes many note-worthy decisions, including Vaughan (City) (Re) , where the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario found that personal information received on an unsolicited basis is not “collected” for the purposes of the Municipal Freedom…

Ontario Budget 2011 – Highlights for Employers

INTRODUCTION On March 29, 2011, the Honourable Dwight Duncan, Ontario’s Minister of Finance, tabled the government’s 2011 Budget, “Turning the Corner to a Better Tomorrow”, before the Legislature and simultaneously introduced omnibus legislation amending a variety of statutes to implement some of these initiatives through Bill 173, the Better Tomorrow for Ontario Act (Budget Measures),…

Hicks Morley Information and Privacy Highlights – Spring 2011

Welcome to the Spring 2011 Hicks Morley Information and Privacy Highlights! As you may have noticed, we’ve recently re-vamped our publication and introduced a shorter, more condensed version of our traditional Post, designed to provide you with the most relevant and leading case law. The Highlights will now be published three times annually and will…

Hicks Morley Information and Privacy Post – Fall 2010

Welcome to the Fall 2010 Quarterly Edition of the Hicks Morley Information and Privacy Post! As always, we bring you this quarter’s case law updates in privacy, freedom of information, confidentiality and the law of production. Highlights in this quarter include State Farm v. Privacy Commissioner of Canada, [2010] FC 736, where the Federal Court…

Hicks Morley Information and Privacy Post – Summer 2010

Welcome to the Summer 2010 Quarterly Edition of the Hicks Morley Information and Privacy Post! This edition is packed with the most up-to-date case law developments in privacy, freedom of information, confidentiality and the law of production. Of note is the Supreme Court of Canada’s recent pronouncement on access to information under Ontario’s Freedom of…

Bill 168 – Assessing Students as Risks

The new provisions incorporated into the Occupational Health and Safety Act (“OHSA”) by Bill 168 came into force on June 15, 2010. These provisions make clear that colleges must take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances to protect their workers from workplace violence. In this bulletin, we focus on the college duty to manage the…