Judicial Reviews

April 23, 2003

"Judicial review" refers to the power of the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta to determine whether the Information and Privacy Commissioner has acted strictly within the powers that have been given to him or her. Such a review is not an appeal. It does not allow the court to substitute its decision for that of the Commissioner except in exceptional circumstances where the Commissioner's decision is found to be patently unreasonable. A party to an inquiry by the Commissioner may apply for judicial review on jurisdictional grounds or on the basis of an error in law.

Judicial Reviews

The following Commissioner's Orders have undergone judicial review and the judgments of the Court of Queen's Bench are provided here for the convenience of users of this web site.

• Qualicare Health Services Corporation v. Alberta (Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner), [2006] ABQB 515 (pdf file, 149 KB), affirming IPC Order F2005-009.
• Alberta (Attorney General) v. Krushell, [2003] ABQB 252 (pdf file, 84 KB), reversing IPC Order F2002-022.
• University of Alberta v. Pylypiuk, [2002] ABQB 22 (pdf file, 57 KB), reversing IPC Order 2000-032. The Commissioner reconsidered the matter in IPC Order F2002-030R.
• Alberta (Minister of Justice) v. Roy (10 December 1996), Edmonton no. 9603-16335 (Q.B.) (pdf file, 27 KB), affirming IPC Order 96-006.

An application for judicial review of the following Orders has been made to the Court of Queen's Bench. When a decision is issued, it will be posted to this web site.

• 2001-041 (requested by the applicant)
• 2001-010 (requested by the third party)

For further information on judicial reviews, see

• sections 75 to 81 of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) Act
• Chapter 10.12 of the FOIP Guidelines and Practices publication