Nova Scotia’s new information and privacy commissioner is a lawyer who has worked in private practice and for the Nova Scotia and Northwest Territories governments.
David Nurse’s appointment was announced Monday. He takes over from Tricia Ralph, whose five-year term wrapped up at the end of February.
According to a news release from the Justice Department, Nurse worked as a lawyer for the Nova Scotia Department of Justice and the province’s Office of Immigration. He also owned and operated a law firm, was a lawyer with the Northwest Territories government in addition to working for the Halifax law firm McInnes Cooper in the past.
In a statement, Nurse said “protecting Nova Scotians’ right to know and balancing that with their right to privacy is an important responsibility and one that I do not take lightly.
“I look forward to serving Nova Scotians in this capacity and to working collaboratively to strengthen transparency and trust in our public institutions.”
Nurse takes on his new role as the provincial government continues its review of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, work that appears to be taking longer than expected.
It also comes on the heels of concerns from his predecessor about the state of the system and that recent government legislation would have given department officials the power to reject access to information requests if they decided they were vexatious, frivolous or lacking in specificity.
In the face of those concerns and public criticism, the Progressive Conservative government amended the legislation to remove the specificity requirement and require department officials to apply to the privacy commissioner for approval before being able to reject an access to information application.
