Jehovah’s Witnesses and body of elders refuse to hand over personal information records as required by law
Of interest in the proceedings was an affidavit from Kevin Knaus, a member of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Canada, who deposed that the teachings and instructions of Jehovah’s Witnesses, as applying to elders, constitute “canon law”.
Judgment summary
Two of the respondents applied, pursuant to s. 23(1) of the Personal Information Protection Act (“PIPA”), for disclosure of their personal information from two Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations. In response, the congregations withheld certain information on the basis that it was privileged and confidential religious communication.
An adjudicator acting as a delegate of the commissioner under PIPA reviewed the congregations’ decisions to withhold information. She ultimately ordered that the information must be disclosed to her under s. 38(1)(b) of PIPA so that she could determine whether it needed to be provided to the respondents. The adjudicator considered the congregations’ argument that PIPA breached their right to freedom of religion protected in s. 2(a) of the Charter. She found that while ss. 23(1)(a) and 38(1)(b) of PIPA infringed s. 2(a) of the Charter, the infringement was justified under s. 1. On judicial review, the chambers judge dismissed the appellants’ petition, expressing substantial agreement with the reasons of the adjudicator.
Held: Appeal dismissed. The adjudicator erred in finding that ss. 23(1)(a) and 38(1)(b) of PIPA infringed the Charter. Properly interpreted, these provisions empower the commissioner to consider the appellants’ Charter rights in deciding whether to order production of records for the commissioner’s review. To the extent that a production order made under s. 38(1)(b) unjustifiably infringes the Charter rights of an organization, the source of the infringement is the order itself and not the provisions of PIPA. In this case, the production order proportionately balanced the appellants’ Charter rights with statutory objectives, and therefore the decision to issue the order was reasonable.
DOWNLOAD | 2025 BCCA 83 Vabuolas v. British Columbia (Information and Privacy Commissioner) – pdf
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