Canadian Lawyer

LEGAL REPORT/PRIVACY LA CY LAW under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, but Kristin Taylor says she welcomes any query the public wants to send her way. In fact, the general counsel for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health sees it as an opportunity to get information out about an organization many are curious and confused about. "It's an exciting time, I wish it would pick up a little though in terms of requests — as a lawyer I'm a bit of a geek in that way — I say bring it on," says Taylor, who helped steer her organization during the prepa- rations for the application of FIPPA to Ontario hospitals last fall. "We've had some large requests but I think there's been more attention on the acute care Healthy disclosure Y ou would think a mental health institution would cringe a little at the thought of receiving a request for information sector than on mental health so far but I think it's just a matter of time. under FIPPA legislation, which applies to records that came into the custody or con- trol of a hospital on or after Jan. 1, 2007. It is expected the next provincial elec- As of Jan. 1, hospitals in Ontario fell " tion may prompt a spike in requests for information to Ontario' now it seems to be fairly quiet, says Taylor. "I just don't think people really know about it yet," says Taylor. "Definitely we have some of the most complicated and largest requests under PHIPA [Personal Health Information Protection Act] so we do fully expect the same under FIPPA." With s hospitals, but for scandals such as eHealth and ORNGE still fresh in the minds of Ontario tax- payers, the hope is FIPPA will help dem- onstrate transparency and accountability when it comes to publicly funded hos- pitals. Ontario Privacy Commissioner health-care-related financial Ontario hospitals brace for requests under freedom-of-information legislation. BY JENNIFER BROWN Ann Cavoukian started campaigning for Ontario hospitals to fall under FIPPA a decade ago because she believed access and transparency equals accountability and democracy. Essentially every person has a right to access a record or part of a record in the custody of a hospital unless it falls within an exemption or exclusion or the institu- tion concludes on reasonable grounds that the request is frivolous or vexatious. For example, there is an exclusion for informa- tion about abortion services because in other provinces requests have been made about statistics or information about abor- tions where it would be impossible to make available without disclosing information about individuals. Ontario learned from other provinces and drafted it as an exclu- sion. Records associated with research, including clinical trials, are also exempt, except the subject matter and amount of funding received by a hospital for research. www.CANADIAN Lawyermag.com M AY 2012 47 Jeremy bruNeel

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