Update June 2015: For reasons I do not fully understand, the OIPC suddenly did an about-face and refused to allow any intervenors in this inquiry discussed below, and then later did an about-face again and did allow a few selected intervenors. The process is now closed and awaiting final adjudication. I leave the rest of the post for informational purposes about this process, and will update on the next steps I intend to take.
I requested copies of the minutes of meetings of the BC Association of Chiefs of Police and BC Association of Municipal Chiefs of Police from four municipal police departments, because the Associations themselves refused to provide any records. These records were heavily redacted using exemptions reserved for public law enforcement agencies under the BC Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act — this, even though the two Associations are simply private groups and should neither be in possession of confidential police information nor be permitted to use legal exemptions reserved for public law enforcement agencies. For more background on this, please read my articles on the topic. An inquiry will soon be in process before the BC Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, to determine whether the redactions in the records are legal.
The Information and Privacy Commissioner recently recommended that the Associations be declared to be public bodies, but the provincial government has yet to act on that recommendation; therefore, I believe this inquiry and the resulting decision could establish a very important precedent in public access to information about policing and police governance in the province of British Columbia. If you are interested in providing input into the inquiry, all of the relevant records are provided below and my articles provide insights into the stakes involved. Simply contact Tim Mots at the OIPC (tmots (at) oipc.bc.ca) as far ahead of February 3rd, 2015 as you can, and request intervener status on the OIPC Inquiry File F13-55713.
Below are the two record releases which are the subject of the upcoming inquiry before the OIPC:
Here is the list of pages from the above documents that will be the subject of the inquiry: F13-55713 FR Appendix A – Docs List. I chose a relatively small number of pages that highlight key issues of concern. Feel free to contact me directly to discuss that further.
Below are supplemental records that were released later. These contain unredacted versions of selected pages from the above documents. They are not involved in the inquiry, but may provide additional context useful for understanding some of the redacted content in the main documents above.
BCACP BC Govt consult – released records 2
BCAMCP records – release #2 – rcmp, VPD & Worksafe
BCACP – released records #3(consult with VPD)