Freedom of information request heavily redacted
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/05/2021 (1715 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The provincial government has released heavily redacted documents regarding the death of Christine Mitchell to The Brandon Sun after a freedom of information request.
The Sun made a series of requests for documents in mid-April concerning Mitchell’s death and the subsequent RCMP review after Justice Minister Cameron Friesen released a statement calling the review “appropriate and professional.”
The RCMP conducted a 15-month long review of the Brandon police investigation into Mitchell’s death after overdosing at former Brandon city manager Rod Sage’s house, which was given to the justice minister earlier this year. Few details have emerged since.
Mitchell was 30 years old when she died.
Included in the FIPPA request, the Sun asked for Manitoba Justice correspondences mentioning Sage, a copy of the letter then-Justice Minister Cliff Cullen sent to the RCMP requesting a review of the death and Brandon police investigation and Manitoba Justice correspondences concerning Mitchell.
The request was partially granted, but the contents of the documents are almost entirely censored and shed little light.
“As required by subsection 7(1) and 7(2) of FIPPA, the department severed information excepted from disclosure and provided you with as much information as possible,” the response letter from Manitoba Justice reads.
While documents were provided, the entire text of nearly all the emails has been redacted.
The package also included a copy of the letter Cullen sent to the RCMP requesting the review in October 2019, but that too was almost entirely redacted, other than the first paragraph.
The province cited multiple sections of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act while censoring the documents, including harm to a third party’s privacy, harm to relations between Manitoba and other governments, advice to a public body and harm to a law enforcement matter.
The province also previously denied the Sun’s request for a copy of the RCMP review into Mitchell’s death.
» dmay@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @DrewMay_