OFFICE OF THE

INFORMATION & PRIVACY

Protecting privacy. Promoting transparency.
COMMISSIONER
for British Columbia

February 28, 2012

Bradley Kempo
914 - 950 Drake Avenue
VANCOUVER BC V6Z 2B9

Dear Bradley Kempo:

Re: Request for Review - Partial/Severed Release; Vancouver Police Department File 11-
1477A; OIPC File F11-46560

I write further to my letter of January 5, 2012 in which I advised you that I was the investigator
assigned to this file. I now write to provide you with my opinion regarding your request that our
office review the decision of the Vancouver Police Department ("VPD") to withhold some
information under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act ("FIPPA").

On June 16, 2011, you wrote to the VPD and requested records including police report, emails
and all other documents or records in a file related to a police visit to your residence on August
2, 2004.

On August 3, 2011, the VPD responded to your request providing you with responsive records
but with some severing of pages under ss. 16(1)(b) and 22(3)(b).

On August 9, 2011, you requested our office review the decision of the VPD..

The VPD has provided me with the 18 pages of records at issue in both severed and unsevered
form. I have carefully reviewed the severing and I provide you with my views below. The
sections of FIPPA which the VPD applied are also shown below.

RELEVANT SECTIONS OF FIPPA

Disclosure harmful to intergovernmental relations or negotiations

16 (1) The head of a public body may refuse to disclose information to an applicant if
the disclosure could reasonably be expected to

(a) harm the conduct by the government of British Columbia of

relations between that government and any of the following or their
agencies:

Mail: PO Box 9038, Stn Prov Govt, Victoria BC V8W 9A4

Location: 4th Floor, 947 Fort Street, Victoria BC
T. 250 387 5629 F. 250 387 1696
Toll free through Enquiry BC 800 663 7867 or 604 660 2421 (Vancouver)
W. www.oipc.bc.ca
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(i) the government of Canada or a province of Canada;

(ii) the council of a municipality or the board of a regional
district;
(iii) an aboriginal government;
(iv) the government of a foreign state;
(v) an international organization of states,

(b) reveal information received in confidence from a government,

council or organization listed in paragraph (a) or their agencies,

Disclosure harmful to personal privacy

22 (1) The head of a public body must refuse to disclose personal information to an
applicant if the disclosure would be an unreasonable invasion of a third party's
personal privacy.

(3) A disclosure of personal information is presumed to be an unreasonable

invasion of a third party's personal privacy if

(b) the personal information was compiled and is identifiable as part

of an investigation into a possible violation of law, except to the
extent that disclosure is necessary to prosecute the violation or to
continue the investigation,

ANALYSIS OF SEVERING OF RECORDS

Open Court Principle

I begin my analysis by addressing your argument that, under the "Open Court Principle," the
records should be released in full to you. However, the request for records that you made was
under FIPPA which is a separate process and the FIPPA legislation requires that personal
information of third parties must be withheld by a public body, including a municipal police force.
Therefore the public body must follow the legislative requirements of FIPPA when responding to
an access request.
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Section 22

Section 22 is a mandatory exception to the publics right to records and a public body must
withhold the personal information of a third party if the disclosure would be an unreasonable
invasion of the third partys personal privacy. I have reviewed the pages and will discuss the
severing of them.

You will note that the first severed section on page 1 relates to a location. I confirm that this is
third party personal information and meets the test under s. 22(3)(b) of FIPPA. Therefore the
VPD is required to withhold this information.

Starting near the middle of page 1 and continuing for the next three and a half pages are
identifying information of third parties. I believe that you can determine the types of collected
information from the similar sections of information which have not been severed. In my
opinion, this clearly meets the test for s. 22 and must be withheld.

Page 6 titled synopsis and pages 7 and 8 which contain the narrative of the occurrence report
have been severed under s. 22(3)(b). A number of small severed sections on page 6 are clearly
personal information and must be withheld. Similarly on pages 7 and 8 there are small severed
sections which would clearly identify individuals and must be withheld under s. 22. On page 7,
there are four larger sections of severed information. I have carefully reviewed the paragraphs
under "Background of the event," and the larger sections in paragraphs 3 and 5 under
"Narrative." These severed sections do not contain your personal information and their release
would clearly be an unreasonable invasion of the privacy of third parties. I also agreed with the
severing of page 8 by VPD.

My review of paragraph 4 on page 7 resulted in my opinion that much of paragraph 4 should be

released to you.

The VPD has also withheld pages 9 - 14 in their entirety. It is my view that some of paragraph 9
should not be severed under s. 22(3)(b) but the other pages are appropriately withheld under s.
22(3)(b).

I have also reviewed the remaining severing on page 15 and that page is appropriately withheld
under s. 16(1)(b). I also believe that s. 22(3)(b) would also be applied to this severing. As s. 22
is a mandatory section, an adjudicator would have to apply this even if the public body had not.

Pages 16 to 18 were released to you.

I have spoken to the VPD about my concerns regarding pages 7 and 9 and they have agreed to
release those sections to you.

Additional records

Lastly, as part of your request, you asked for emails which formed part of the information. I
have spoken to the VPD about these records and I accept that these records were created by a
third party and in the custody of another third party. They clearly contain the personal
information of those individuals but do not contain your personal information. Under s. 22 of
FIPPA, the disclosure of these records is not permitted and I agree with the decision of the VPD
to withhold this information.
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In my opinion, you have all the information to which you are entitled in response to your request.
I would be pleased to discuss my views in greater detail if you wish. Please call me directly at
(250) 356-0849 or through the toll-free Enquiry BC number 1-800-663-7867. If I have not heard
from you by March 16, 2012, I will assume that you are satisfied with my response and I will
close the file.

Sincerely,

James K. Burrows
Senior Investigator

c. VPD