We won our Freedom of Information case against UBC

We've been fighting with the university for a few years now to try to get access to the rubrics that explain exactly how they grade broad-based admissions. Here's a recap of the whole situation.

What happened?

UBC appealed the the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of BC's (OIPC) original decision, in which they ruled that the documents were neither a record or an examination of a test — two reasons a public body can refuse to release information to the public — and would not cause the university financial harm.

UBC was trying to prove that the decision of the OIPC was “unreasonable,” which would mean they don't have to release it. For law nerds, the university tried to move the bar for appealing these kinds of decisions from “unreasonable” to “incorrect,” which is a lower standard.

The court didn't agree.

In reference to the OIPC's decision against that, Justice Loryl D. Russell said, “I find nothing in this analysis to be unreasonable and UBC has not provided any authority to convince me otherwise.”

What happens next?

UBC can file a Notice of Appeal within 30 days to take the decision to the BC Court of Appeal, in which case things will drag on for a bit. If they decide not to do that, we get the rubrics and the university pays some of The Ubyssey's legal costs.