Information and Privacy Commission/Ontario Rules in Favor of HWFAC

Hamilton-Wentworth Family Action Council (HWFAC) was initially formed as a watchdog group concerned with the destructive manner in which sex education was being carried out by Planned Parenthood Hamilton (PPH), Public Health and the Public School Board. It was late in 1996 when HWFAC, during its process of intervening for traditional family values, heard time and time again that it was the Planned Parenthhood, condomized, safe-sex approach which was keeping teen pregnancy rates low in the Hamilton-Wentworth region. HWFAC researched these claims of PPH and Public Health and found the opposite to be true. The condomized approach had actually increased teen pregnancy rates substantially.

The pregnancy rates and related data for the Region and the Province were easily obtained up to and including 1995; however in 1996, this data came under the protection of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. This protection meant that analyzing teen pregnancy rate trends to determine the effectiveness of sexual health programs became virtually impossible for any group outside of Public Health or the Ministry of Health. By the year 2000 there was no public data available beyond 1995, thus the public had no way of addressing the effect of condomized, safe-sex education. Public health had free reign to experiment with our youths and spin tales about their great success while concealing the truth of the disastrous results. HWFAC however, was not misled, and applied in the spring of 2000 for all related data both in the Hamilton-Wentworth Region and the province for the years 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999.

By November of 2000, the data for the years 1996 & 1997 had been forwarded to HWFAC for a fee of $150.00 which was then refunded soon thereafter, following an appeal by HWFAC. However, with the refund came a letter stating that the file was now closed, thus the data for 1998 and 1999 would not be forthcoming. This was in conflict with correspondence from the Ministry dated May 16, 2000 which stated, "In response to your request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act), for access to the Teen pregnancy rates for Ontario and the Region of Hamilton-Wentworth for 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999, the decision has been made to grant access in full." Why had the Ministry in one response granted full access and only months later denied it?

It took 3 years of applications, appeals to the Ministry and the Information and Privacy Commission/Ontario (IPCO) and IPCO mediation to move the request to the inquiry stage by the IPCO. At this inquiry of December 18, 2003, HWFAC and Ministry representatives sat before the IPCO adjudicator and presented their cases. During this inquiry, HWFAC was able to present much evidence of the questionable behaviour of the Ministry over the past 3 years which included large fees, threats of increasing fees and denial that the pregnancy data existed, despite the fact that it had already been printed in the Hamilton Spectator in August of 2003. The Ministry was unable to provide acceptable answers.

The adjudicator ruled that the Ministry must provide the provincial data to HWFAC immediately and that the Hamilton data must be provided by the Hamilton Public Health Unit upon receipt of a request by HWFAC. Accordingly, provincial data has been received and a written request for Hamilton data has been made. There is more work to be done on this issue. It is our position that this data should be readily available and with a time lag not exceeding 2 years which was the case prior to 1996 in order that the effectiveness of the sex-education program might be determined as soon as possible. To date this has been a tremendous task with only partial success; however, HWFAC will continue to press further hoping to at some point in time be successful in this venture.