CCLA PRESSES TORONTO POLICE BOARD ON DISCLOSING INFORMATION

In a December 2007 letter to the Toronto Police Services Board, CCLA’s Freedom of Expression Director, Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, called for the disclosure of information sought by the Toronto Star since 2003. In the interests of privacy, the Board was asked to replace the name of each person in the police database with a unique, randomly-generated number. The Board refused, arguing that this would require the creation of a record; the Board simply had to produce existing records.

The Information and Privacy Commissioner agreed with the Star but, on appeal, the Divisional Court reversed the decision. Ms Mendelsohn Aviv argued that, in view of the enormous power of the police, the public interest would be better served if the police board discontinued the litigation and instead coughed up the information; “The effort needed to produce the requested information would be fairly minimal in comparison to the compelling public interest in receiving it.”

In the meantime, CCLA has retained Wendy Matheson of the Tory firm to apply for leave to intervene in the Ontario Court of Appeal, where the case is currently heading. [Rankin v. Toronto Police Services Board]