Supreme Court Balances Access To Information And Third-Party Confidentiality

Copyright 2012, Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP

Originally published in Blakes Bulletin on Litigation & Dispute Resolution, February 2012

The Supreme Court of Canada (the Court) recently issued its first decision interpreting the exemption in the Access to Information Act (the ATIA) protecting third-party commercial information in the possession of a government institution from disclosure to requesters: Merck Frosst Canada Ltd. v. Canada (Health). The decision heralds a new, much-needed balance between requesters' rights to information about government and the rights of third parties to have confidential information that they provide to the government for regulatory or other purposes protected from disclosure. As a guiding principle in applying the ATIA, the Court found that government institutions have equally important duties to disclose information that is accessible under the Act, and to refuse to disclose confidential information that is exempt under the Act.