By Canadian Press

Privacy commissioner says RCMP ignored his investigators in complaint cases

Feb 25, 2020 | 1:27 PM

OTTAWA — The federal privacy watchdog has accused the RCMP of ignoring his office’s efforts to investigate complaints about the national police force’s failure to respond to information requests from the public.

Under the federal Privacy Act, individuals can ask federal departments and agencies, including the RCMP, for records the agency might hold about them.

Agencies are supposed to respond within 30 days, though they can take an extension of another 30 days.

In March 2018, Dale Cumming filed a Privacy Act request with the RCMP and he lodged a complaint with privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien four months later over the police force’s lack of response.

Therrien upheld the complaint and advised Cumming he could pursue the matter further in Federal Court.

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A newly released court ruling in Cumming’s case reveals Therrien wrote RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki last May, citing 16 other complaints that alleged the RCMP had failed to respond within the time limit.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 25, 2020.

The Canadian Press