He's still waiting for FOI records Toronto police said he could have last summer, requested in 2020

Jamie Jelinski feels a bit like David — and the Toronto police are his Goliath. 

The trouble is, he's worried that this time Goliath might win.

Jelinski filed a freedom of information (FOI) request to Toronto police in June 2020 for records concerning the facial recognition technology Clearview AI after the police service admitted to using the controversial tool beginning in October 2019 and committed to stop using it in February of the following year. 

Jelinski said he filed the request hoping to learn how Clearview AI is used in practice — all part of his research into visual identification techniques and technologies used by Canadian law enforcement. But nearly five years later, the visual culture scholar still hasn't received all of the responsive records, despite paying police more than $200 for the remaining 1,100 pages of emails last July. 

"To me it suggests they don't respect the legislation that they're supposed to be operating within, they don't respect public transparency," said Jelinski, who is now a lecturer in the University of Liverpool's department of communication and media.

"If they didn't intend on disclosing this to me last year, they should not have accepted my money."

In Ontario, public institutions like police services are subject to provincial or municipal freedom of information and protection of privacy laws. The legislation requires institutions to issue a decision for FOI requests within 30 days and to disclose the records if access is granted in that timeframe, with a few exceptions. 

FOI experts told CBC Toronto that Jelinski's experience highlights why Ontario's access to information legislation needs to be modernized — and why it needs to include tools to enforce legislated timeframes and its own orders to disclose records.

If the requester of information disagrees with an institution's decision or believes it has failed to meet legislated timeframes, they can submit an appeal to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC). 

Jelinski has submitted three IPC appeals for this request. The first, because Toronto police originally denied him access to any records. Then, after winning that appeal in 2023, he filed one in 2024 when Toronto police failed to issue him a final decision letter about whether he'd have access to the documents. He filed the third appeal earlier this year, because he hadn't received the records he paid for last summer. 

"I have to force them through the IPC every step of the way," said Jelinski. 

In response to his most recent appeal, the privacy commissioner asked Toronto police to give Jelinski copies of the records by April 24. The service didn't meet that deadline. So in an email last week, the IPC told Jelinski it would issue an order to disclose the records.

CBC Toronto asked police why Jelinski's request has taken so long, why it didn't meet the most recent deadline from the privacy commissioner — and when it is that police intend to provide Jelinski with the records he's paid for.

The service declined an interview request, but in an email, a spokesperson said certain records have already been released to Jelinski and noted the ongoing IPC mediation process.