Supreme Court of Canada Affirms Access to Information in Federal Investigations

The Supreme Court of Canada in the recent decision of Lavigne v. Canada (Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages) confirmed that exceptions to the general duty of federal institutions to disclose personal information must be interpreted narrowly. In particular, the Court concluded that where the Privacy Act and the Official Languages Act collide, the Commissioner of Official Languages may refuse to disclose personal information only if it can be shown that disclosure can reasonably be expected to be injurious to the conduct of future investigations. For the full text of case, visit: http://www.lexum.umontreal.ca/csc-scc/en/rec/html/lavigne3.en.html. For the Privacy Commissioner of Canada website, visit: http://www.privcom.gc.ca/http://www.privcom.gc.ca. To view a copy of the Privacy Act, visit: http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/P-21/index.html. To view a copy of the Official Languages Act, visit: http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/O-3.01/index.html.