MHPS Flagrantly Flouting FOIP Act
Strong Language Warning - There are a few F Bombs.
Democracy Dies in the Dark
Community TV has learned that the Medicine Hat Police Service (MHPS) doesn't even try to fulfill their legislated FOIP obligations.
(Upcoming proposed changes to the FOIP in Bill 34 could assist Public Bodies such as MHPS and the City of Medicine Hat in their attempts to subvert access to the Freedom Of Information process. More on that later in this article.)
You don't have to believe me, here is what they said when I asked about why they did not abide by the deadline of 30 days as legislated in the FOIP Act 11(1). Screenshots of email exchange appear later in this article.
MHPS Response (Emphasis added by me.)
Time and extensions: MHPS has received a significant increase in the amount of FOIP requests received in the past 18 months. Due to staff transitions, unit reorganizing, and this volume increase, response times have been significantly delayed. While I can report that MHPS is aware of these factors and has taken significant steps to mitigate these wait times, the full effect is yet to be realized. Extension letters are issued to outline a new deadline and can only be issued by MHPS for an additional 30 days. As our wait times rendered these letters redundant, it was decided that the time resource could better be allocated to processing the public’s requests.
They have effectively said
Since we cannot possibly abide by these deadlines, we’ll just say “Fuck It” and not even bother.
I Have Filed 3 FOIP Requests This Year With the MHPS
First FOIP Request
February 23 2024, the MHPS had until March 24 2024 to respond
I requested any information from an incident that happened on December 21 2023. (This was the day that Stephen Campbell tried to serve Thomas Fougere at his address by trying to give the papers to me. Campbell ambushed me at my car and chased me around Fougere’s property when I refused to take the paperwork. I had to get back into my car and leave, Fougere was already on the phone with the police.
I also asked for any police complaints filed by Stephen Campbell of (address redacted) that mentions my name.
I received no acknowledgment of receipt.
I received no extension letter.
They didn’t even try to respond to it until after I filed 2 more requests 8 months later and started nagging them every single day for a response. The red redactions are mine to protect my personal info.
I finally received the heavily redacted information on October 29 2024, 249 days later. Despite the fact that I was party to the Dec 21 incident, they removed most of the information including the evidence I gave to police. This is evidence that I required to defend myself in what I believe to be a ridiculous restraining order request filed by Campbell. The only time he called the police about me was to get assistance in serving the Restraining Order Without Notice (the judge chastised him in court for serving it himself and ordered him not to do it again). Given that our police service charges $120/hr for extra duty police officers, this seems to be a frivolous use of our police resources.
The purple redactions are mine, to protect my personal information, the red ink is from MHPS to protect everyone else’s even though I know exactly who was there.
2nd FOIP Request
August 27 2024 The MHPS had until Sept 26 2024 to respond.
I requested my personal information held by the MHPS from January 1 2020 to August 27 2024. I asked for
“All records that mention my name in every format available including but not limited to –
emails, tickets, evidence, complaints, investigations etc.”
I anticipated that it would be a short document for the following reasons.
I am the only Kelly Allard in the City of Medicine Hat.
The only other K Allard in the City of Medicine Hat is one of my offspring.
I have never been charged with a crime.
I have not been involved in any accidents.
I have never been called as a witness.
I have not filed a police complaint in about 3 years.
I rarely get tickets - less than one a year.
I rarely call the police - probably less than once a year.
I received no acknowledgment of receipt.
I received no extension letter.
I received no response until October 24 2024 (58 days later).
This was after I had been sending daily emails for over a week and receiving no response. I did not get a response until I sent an email to the MHPC (Medicine Hat Police Commission) Director of Public Complaints who forwarded my message. It turned out that the email address on the MHPS website was wrong and nobody noticed. They did change it within 24 hours after I pointed it out. In the meantime I had not received any automated replies, not even “this message could not be delivered”. As far as I knew, they were receiving all of my messages and were ignoring them. (I made an error in the date of this FOIP request, I thought I filed it in July when I actually filed it in August. An honest mistake since the MHPS never responded at all.)
The MHPS has refused to give me any information unless I clarify my request. They said that my request was not specific enough and would “unreasonably interfere with the operations of the public body”. I should note that when I stopped by the police station on October 9 2024 to file a FOIP request, I was told that a number of people were being trained to handle FOIP requests and the responses should be quicker in the future.
I asked how many records were returned. I said that once I knew how many records there were, I would consider narrowing the scope. (By this time 70 days have passed.)
They refused to do the search and then told me that they would consider the request abandoned after 30 days.
(I should note that when I sent in a FOIP request to the City of Medicine Hat for very much the same information, they actually did a search, over 3000 items were returned.)
MHPS is refusing to even do an initial search. They will not even discuss it with me any more.
3rd FOIP Request
October 9 2024
I asked for “All records, video or otherwise of my presence at the MHPS station on the evening of Tuesday Oct 8 2024 [and]... any notes made after that date relating to my presence at the police station.”
I received a letter 26 days later on Nov 5 2024 refusing my request, saying
Any records described above are not available for disclosure as the incident (docket number) are subject to ongoing prosecutorial proceedings. Records of this nature are excluded from the scope of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIPP Act) under section 4(1)(k) as the incident associated is before the Courts. Therefore, we are not disclosing them to you at this time.
Bill 34 and Coming Changes to the FOIP Act
Bill 34 is in the Legislature right now, it has not yet been passed. Certain changes have been proposed that only serve to weaken it. The most concerning part is that the power to decide if a request is frivolous or vexatious will now be given to the head of the Public Body. The Public Body has the most reason to hide documents. They can refuse to respond thereby bypassing the time limit process of 30 days. They can just say
Fuck it, we don’t want to answer and we don’t have to. We don't even have to try to justify it with the OIPC.
Right now the Public Body must file a Request to Disregard from the OIPC (Office of Information and Privacy Commissioner). The City of Medicine Hat has been publicly spanked for this very thing by the OIPC this year for filing too many (one might even call them frivolous) Requests to Disregard.
The last paragraph of the OIPC Decision reads
[33] As a final note, this is the fourth application the Public Body has brought to me this year requesting authorization to disregard access requests (resulting in three decisions: F2024- RTD-03, F2024-RTD-05, and this decision). I have dismissed all of these applications on the basis that the Public Body did not provide sufficient evidence to meet its burden. These decisions should provide guidance to the Public Body as to the evidence required for these types of cases and I encourage the Public Body to ensure it has evidence to support its application before it considers bringing another one in the future.
Applicants will have the right to ask the OIPC to review the Public Body's decision, but this creates an additional barrier.
Other changes include
Changing 30 days to 30 business days - this will add 8-10 days to the response time depending on holidays.
Under “Duty to Assist Applicants” where it states that the head of a public body must create a record for the applicant, they have added
c) if it would be reasonable and practical
Under “Extending Time Limit for Responding” which says
14(1) The head of a public body may extend the time for responding to a request for up to 30 days or, with the Commissioner’s permission, for a longer period if…
they have replaced
the applicant does not give enough detail to enable the public body to identify a requested record,
with
“(a) if the applicant agrees”
This puts pressure on the applicant to agree to the time limit.
They also removed
(d) a third party asks for a review under section 65(2) or 77(3)
We’ll do a deeper dive into this legislation.
Democracy Dies in the Dark
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