John Doe - Supreme Court of Canada finds that internal Finance policy papers were exempt from Access-to-Information disclosure

Schwartz and Yip have suggested that, in light of the need to ascertain the policy choices underlying provisions in a GAAR analysis of their alleged misuse or abuse, "the taxpayer should be entitled to access information about the tax policy of the specific provisions" through an Access to Information request – and that an exclusion for government documents representing "advice or recommendations" should be construed narrowly.

Although they have a valid point, Rothstein J found that the Ontario Ministry of Finance was entitled to refuse to provide various internal drafts of a policy options paper under the "advice or recommendations" exclusion in the equivalent Ontario provision: the intended effect of the exclusion, which was to encourage public servants to provide candid and complete advice on policy options including, in this case, tax amendments, would be undercut by interpreting the exclusion narrowly.  The same logic might apply to preliminary drafts of CRA positions.

Neal Armstrong.  Summary of John Doe v. Ontario (Finance), 2014 SCC 36 under Access to Information Act, s. 21.