Congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Coldstream and Grand Forks have been ordered to turn over documents to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner. In a June 20 decision by director of adjudication Elizabeth Barker, the commission ruled that the church must turn over records to two former members so it can decide “what access, if any, to the records should be given.” to the applicants”. Last year, a BC Supreme Court Justice stayed a lawsuit by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Canada, saying the privacy committee is the best place to make a decision. The church had refused to hand over personal records sought by former Jehovah’s Witnesses Gregory Westgaard and Gabrielle-Liberty Wall. The two former members are requesting the return of their personal files. The churches rejected the requests, arguing that the records are confidential and that compelling production violates their constitutional rights. The church believes the Privacy Act does not apply to it, but the judge disagreed. While Barker found that the measures in PIPA infringe on freedom of religion, that infringement is justified under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Barker said the churches have not shown that PIPA violates freedom of expression, freedom of association or unreasonable search and seizure under the Charter. The church, meanwhile, has filed for judicial review, says its attorney, Jayden MacEwan of W. Glen How & Associates. Commission documents reveal that churches refused access on the basis that the records were “confidential religious communications”. The matter could not be resolved through mediation and an investigation proceeded. Jehovah’s Witnesses have no paid clergy. Instead, each church has a group of volunteer, appointed elders who are responsible for spiritual leadership. The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, meanwhile, is a charitable religious corporation whose goals include: “To initiate or defend legal proceedings to preserve freedom of religion, expression, assembly, and press; for upholding the basic rule of law and freedoms enshrined in the Canadian Constitution.” Several years after Westgarde left Jehovah’s Witnesses, he asked the Grand Forks church to provide him with a copy of all records containing information about him. Liberty Wall did the same 10 years after leaving Coldstream Church. The church initially told him it did not have any of his personal information, but later revised its response to say his personal information was on file that “constitutes a confidential religious communication, privileged under common law and the Charter.” “Respondents have not produced the disputed records for my consideration in this investigation,” Barker wrote in her decision. “They argue that disclosing the records to anyone, including the commissioner, would violate the Charter rights and freedoms of all elders in the two congregations and all other elders and Jehovah’s Witnesses in British Columbia. “The respondents’ undisputed evidence is that the elders are church appointees. In particular, the elders say they did not prepare the records as part of their responsibilities to the churches; rather, they prepared them ‘as part of a ‘sacred church duty’ God help” to restore the errant’ and to preserve the ‘biblically moral and spiritual integrity of our churches’ in the collective sense of the Jehovah’s Witnesses religious denomination’. Barker wrote that without seeing the documents, “it is not possible to decide whether they contain personal information or whose personal information may be included.” The church was ordered to turn over the records by Aug. 3, but has sought a review in the BC Supreme Court. to stop the process. A ruling on the matter could have nationwide ramifications for churches that hold records of former members.
