Summary

Keywords

Administrative law — Access to information — Professional order — Applicant seeking access to contracts for services awarded by Barreau du Québec to public relations firms and detailed description of amounts spent by Barreau on those firms — Barreau denying request for access to certain documents because they were not held for purpose of supervising profession pursuant to s. 108.1 of Professional Code or because they did not exist — Whether commission and courts below erred in interpreting s. 108.1 of Professional Code — Whether commission and courts below erred in dismissing applicant’s applications or appeal — Professional Code, CQLR, c. C-26, s. 108.1.

Summary

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The applicant is a lawyer and a member of the respondent, Barreau du Québec (“Barreau”). He submitted an access to information request to the Barreau in order to obtain, among other things, all the contracts for services awarded by the Barreau to public relations firms in recent years as well as a detailed description of all amounts spent by the Barreau on public relations firms.

The Barreau refused to provide the applicant with certain documents, alleging that they were not held by the professional order for the purpose of supervising the profession pursuant to s. 108.1 of the Professional Code and that, as a result, the Act respecting access to documents held by public bodies and the protection of personal information, CQLR, c. A-2.1, did not apply to them. The Barreau also alleged that there were no documents evidencing two contracts that had been awarded orally.

The Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec dismissed the application for review of the Barreau’s refusal to provide the documents to the applicant. The Court of Québec granted the Barreau’s motion to dismiss the applicant’s appeal and dismissed the appeal, and the Superior Court dismissed an application for judicial review of that decision. A judge of the Quebec Court of Appeal dismissed the applicant’s motion for leave to appeal.

Lower Court Rulings