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Ontario Court Orders Disclosure of Employees Personal Information despite PIPEDA
The application of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (the "PIPEDA") to information sought during examination for discovery was recently addressed by the Ontario Courts in Clustercraft Jewellery Manufacturing Co. Ltd. v. Wygee Holdings Ltd. In particular, the court ordered a plaintiff company to provide the names and addresses of employees, the length of service of employees and the names, addresses and telephone number of former employees to the defendant. The plaintiff had refused to answer these questions on discovery on the basis that they were irrelevant and because the disclosure of such information was prohibited by PIPEDA. The court held that the disclosure of the information conformed with section 7(3)(c) of the PIPEDA, which provides for the disclosure of information "required to comply with a subpoena or warrant issued or an order made by a court, person or body with jurisdiction to compel the production of information, or to comply with rules of court relating to the production of records." The court stated that "at a minimum", the master's order was an order made by a court with jurisdiction to compel the production of information, leaving silent whether the disclosure was also permitted under the provision relating to the "rules of court".
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