T-582-01
2002 FCT 624
The Attorney General of Canada and Bruce Hartley (Applicants)
v.
The Information Commissioner of Canada (Respondent)
Indexed as: Canada (Attorney General) v. Canada (Information Commissioner) (T.D.)
Trial Division, McKeown J.--Ottawa, May 31, 2002.
Practice -- Confidential Orders -- Motion for order requiring respondent to provide to applicants' counsel transcripts of proceedings before Information Commissioner's delegate -- Transcripts ordered filed with Court on confidential basis -- Previous order implying transcripts supplied to Court, counsel only -- Requiring, as contempla-ted by Federal Court Rules, 1998, r. 152, transcripts to be provided on confidential basis to counsel only, not to clients -- Motion allowed.
statutes and regulations judicially
considered
Federal Court Rules, 1998, SOR/98-106, r. 152.
cases judicially considered
considered:
Canada (Attorney General) v. Canada (Information Commissioner), [2002] 3 F.C. 605 (T.D.).
MOTION for order requiring respondent to provide to applicants' counsel transcripts of proceedings before Information Commissioner's delegate. Motion allowed.
appearances:
David W. Scott, Q.C. and Peter K. Doody for applicants.
Daniel Brunet and Sonia U. Han for respondent.
solicitors of record:
Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, Ottawa, for applicants.
Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada, Ottawa, for respondent.
The following are the reasons for order and order rendered in English by
[1]McKeown J.: The applicants have brought a motion for an order that the respondent provide counsel for the applicants with the transcripts of certain proceedings before the Information Commissioner's delegate, which I had ordered to be filed with the Court on a confidential basis.
[2]My order of February 2, 2002 stated among other things.
3. The transcripts of the proceedings before the Information Commissioner's delegate be filed on a confidential basis on the judicial review applications in the following four groups only: the Confidentiality Order Applications, the Propriety of Questions Applications, the Compliance with Subpoena Application, and the ss. 37/38 Applications.
[3]In my reasons on the motion brought by the respondent to strike the Attorney General as a party and to remove applicants' counsel from the record, at paragraph 36 I stated [[2002] 3 F.C. 605 (T.D.)]:
Rules 151 and 152 of the Federal Court Rules, 1998 provide for the Court to make Orders requiring material to be filed to be treated as confidential. Where such an order is made, unless otherwise ordered by the Court, only a solicitor of record or a solicitor assisting in the proceeding who is not a party, is entitled to have access to the confidential material.
[4]My reasons and order implied that the transcripts should be supplied to the Court and to counsel only. I agree with counsel for the applicants that my order requires, as contemplated by rule 152 [of the Federal Court Rules, 1998, SOR/98-106], that the transcripts should be provided on a confidential basis to counsel for the applicants only and not to the clients. Mr. Doody has already filed an undertaking: (1) not to disclose the contents of the transcripts of the proceedings before the Information Commissioner's delegate referred to in my order, except to solicitors assisting in the proceedings or to the Court in the course of argument; (2) he would not permit those transcripts to be reproduced in whole or in part; (3) he would destroy the material and notes on its contents and file a certificate of their destruction or deliver the material and notes as ordered by the Court, when the material and notes were no longer required for the proceeding or he ceased to be solicitor of record.
[5]The motion is granted.
[6]It is ordered that the respondent give to Peter K. Doody the transcripts of the proceedings before J. Alan Leadbeater, the delegate of the Information Commissioner, on March 30, April 11, April 25, April 26, April 30, May 15, June 12 and June 21, 2001, during which submissions were made on behalf of and evidence was heard from one or more of Bruce Hartley, Meribeth Morris, Randy Mylyk, Emechete Onuoha, Jean Pelletier, the Honourable Art Eggleton, Mel Cappe, and Sue Ronald.
[7]The respondent shall pay to the applicants the costs of this motion.