"No Fishing" In Alberta: Court Clarifies Ability To Redact, Disclosure In Questioning

On March 31, 2017, in Geophysical Service Incorporated v. NWest Energy Corp (NWest Energy), the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta (Court) provided clarity on the principles of relevance and materiality in the context of questioning pursuant to part 5 of the Alberta Rules of Court. The Court also provided helpful guidance on the ability to redact irrelevant information from produced documents.

BACKGROUND

The decision in NWest Energy arose from an appeal from an order issued in Master's Chambers. Geophysical Service Incorporated (GSI) sought to compel Shoal Point Energy Ltd. (Shoal) to answer three undertakings that Shoal had refused in questioning. The undertakings related to the identification of certain parties who may have attended a presentation and accessed data that GSI alleged was its data, and for the production of confidentiality agreements signed by those parties in relation to the information. Shoal refused on the basis that the requested undertakings