This was a Judicial Review Application by the Edmonton Police Service (“EPS”) to quash a Decision of an Adjudicator in the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (“OIPC”), ordering the EPS to disclose portions of its Professionalism Committee’s Final Report (the “Report”) to the Criminal Trial Lawyers' Association (“CTLA”). The Committee issued its report in 2006, which included information from various outside agencies, including Alberta Justice. CTLA made an access request for the Report. EPS released most of the Report to the CTLA, but withheld some sections, pursuant to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, RSA 2000, c F-25 (“FOIPPA”). CTLA requested a review by OIPC.

The OIPC Adjudicator held that, pursuant to FOIPPA, the Report should be disclosed in its entirety. The EPS brought an Application for Judicial Review on the basis that the Adjudicator incorrectly interpreted the relevant sections of FOIPPA, and that the evidence before the Adjudicator established that the outside information was supplied to the Committee in confidence. The EPS further argued that the Adjudicator breached the requirements of procedural fairness.

Ultimately, the Application for Judicial Review was dismissed on the basis that the Adjudicator did not breach the rules of procedural fairness, and on the basis that the Adjudicator’s conclusion that the outside information was not supplied in confidence was reasonable. Before coming to a decision on these issues, Justice Ross held that the records that were the subject of the CTLA access to information request, the in camera documents referred to by the Adjudicator, should be sealed. Justice Ross waived the requirement under Rule 6.32 for Notice to the Media of the Application to seal the in camera documents, pursuant to the Court’s discretion under Rule 6.28. Justice Ross held that sealing records that are subject to an access to information request, and documents that would reveal the content of those records, is mandated by FOIPPA.