July 6, 2009

Linda Hannah, Chief Operating Officer at The Land Conservancy of BC, announced that the B.C. Supreme Court has recently decided that certain elements of the TLC’s member register must be made available to members of TLC.

Mr. Justice Bracken concluded that any TLC member may inspect the register of members and is entitled to have access to the names of other TLC members as well as their addresses, the date upon which they became a TLC member and their class of membership, if applicable. The Court also confirmed that the telephone numbers, email addresses, business contact information and any other information pertaining to members must not be disclosed. Any member requesting inspection is entitled to a copy of the members’ register but is prohibited from further distribution of the register.

TLC had been taken to court by a member who is a representative of a group called ‘Save TLC’. Many members had urged TLC to safeguard their privacy and not disclose any of their personal information, in accordance with TLC’s Privacy Policy and what had been interpreted as the privacy rights recognized in the B.C. Personal Information Protection Act. At this time, neither the reasons for the Court’s judgment nor the actual Order of the Court have appeared.

TLC had argued that its members’ privacy interests were paramount and regrets that the Court has now permitted members’ personal information to be disclosed. It was admitted in materials filed in Court that an earlier list of members was already in the possession of ‘Save TLC’. The effect of the Court’s decision is that any member can obtain the updated personal information of TLC members.

Linda Hannah says: “I haven’t seen the actual Order of the Court yet, but one implication could be that someone could join TLC at the minimum monthly fee of $3 and demand our member list. From there, we don’t have any way of monitoring how the list is being used.”

TLC is proud of its efforts to defend members’ privacy and will continue to take whatever steps it can in this direction.

 

For more information on the upcoming Extraordinary General Meeting, please visit conservancy.bc.ca/egm

TLC’s Privacy Policy is available online