Today, the Ontario Court of Appeal issued a significant decision in which it held that documents protected by settlement privilege are exempt from public access under the Ontario Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
The LCBO denied access to various records related to a mediated settlement of a number of civil proceedings between itself and a winery. It relied on the “solicitor-client privilege” exemption in section 19 of FIPPA. This exemption has two branches. Branch 1 exempts records that are subject to solicitor-client privilege and litigation privilege as these privileges are recognized at common law. Branch 2 exempts records that are “prepared by or for Crown counsel for use in giving legal advice or in contemplation or for use in litigation.”
The Court of Appeal affirmed the Divisional Court’s Decision that the records were exempt because they fit within the Branch 2 exemption. In doing so, it made the following significant findings:
- the term “litigation” in the Branch 2 exemption encompasses mandatory and consensual mediation of an Ontario civil dispute;
- the phrase “prepared for Crown counsel” should not be narrowly read to mean “prepared at the behest of Crown counsel”; and
- the “for use in litigation” requirement imports a requirement that the records be communicated to Crown counsel within a reasonably expected “zone of privacy.”
Though this is a very significant decision on the FIPPA Branch 2 exemption, the Court declined to opine an even more significant issue – an issue it framed as “Whether the common law settlement privilege is a free-standing exemption under FIPPA or whether FIPPA is a complete code.” The Divisional Court judgment strongly suggests that privileges recognized at common law and rooted in the public interest (such as settlement privilege) can trump the FIPPA right of access.
Liquor Control Board of Ontario v. Magnotta Winery Corporation, 2010 ONCA 681.
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