Teresa Scassa - Blog

A recent decision of the Federal Court of Canada has overturned settled expectations around fees for access to information at the federal level. The case arose after the Information Commissioner of Canada asked the Federal Court to rule on the longstanding practice of federal agencies and departments to charge fees relating to the disclosure of electronic records. For those not familiar with the federal scheme, there is a small application fee for an access to…

The Ontario Court of Appeal recently allowed a proposed class action proceeding for breach of privacy. This on its own is not unusual – such proceedings are increasingly common in Canada. (See earlier post on this subject here). What is particularly interesting about this decision is that the Court of Appeal ruled that Ontario’s Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA) did not pose a barrier to tort proceedings. It had been argued that the provincial…