SYDNEY, N.S. — A bid to seek disclosure of interview questions used by Cape Breton Regional Police in hiring new officers has been denied by a Supreme Court judge.
In a decision released Friday, Justice Robin Gogan said the Cape Breton Regional Municipality was within its right to withhold releasing the list of questions used in accordance with the Municipal Government Act (MGA).
The application was filed by Kevin Tyler MacDonald who had applied for a position with the police in 2016. He was not successful in getting the job.
In March of this year, he applied for disclosure of information from the municipality dealing with his job application and the interview process.
The following month, MacDonald was provided with the requested information with some redactions that included the list of interview questions. He appealed the decision to the Supreme Court.
In her decision, Gogan explained that MacDonald filed his appeal under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIPOP).
He claimed the questions sought are generic and no longer in use.
The municipality argued the list of questions remains in use and will likely be used in the future and are exempt from disclosure under the MGA.
In her ruling, Gogan said she was satisfied that the MGA and not the FOIPOP governed the appeal. She noted a section of the MGA that exempts the release of “a record of a question that is to be used on an examination or test.”
Deanna Evely, director of human resources for CBRM, testified in the hearing that interview questions for police new hires are drawn from a combination of new questions and those used in prior interviews.
“She indicated that she is confident that interview questions sought by MacDonald will be used again in the future. She explained that some questions are difficult to modify and this is the case with questions in police interviews,” said Gogan.
Gogan reviewed the entire unredacted record of information supplied by the municipal in private and agreed that it would be challenging to modify some of the questions for future use.
“The uncontradicted evidence on this appeal is that the questions, once used, go into a pool of interview questions that are likely to be used again. I find that the redacted material meets the criteria for the exemption to apply
