Under the FOI Act, personal information are exempted from the general right of access. These include: file and personal information about clients, patients, residents, students, or other individuals receiving social, medical, educational, vocational, financial, supervisory or custodial care or services directly or indirectly from federal agencies, government or public institutions; files about employees, appointees or elected officials of any government or public institutions or applicant for such positions; files about any applicant licensed by any government or public institution cooperating with or engaged in professional or occupational registration, licensing or discipline.
Personal information can only be disclosed where the individual whom the information is about agrees to its disclosure, where the information is already publicly available or where the disclosure of the information is in the public interest and the public interest in disclosing the information clearly outweighs whatever harm or injury would be done to the privacy of the individual whom the information is about.
