Partial refusal of release of N.S. jail death report criticized by privacy chief
HALIFAX — Nova Scotia’s freedom of information law is becoming “an exercise in frustration,” the privacy commissioner said after the government partially rejected her recommendations on a report on a man’s jailhouse death.
Commissioner Catherine Tully told the Justice Department it should provide The Canadian Press with most of an internal report into how 23-year-old Clayton Cromwell died from a methadone overdose at the Burnside jail in April 2014, other than names of prisoners and guards.
The efforts to see the internal report — and what it says about the Cromwell’s death — extend back to December 2014, when The Canadian Press first applied for it.
Tully said the province failed to provide evidence to back its assertions that releasing the report would harm law enforcement and the facility’s security, or that it would be “detrimental” to the custody of inmates.