N.S. names new information and privacy commissioner

Michael Gorman · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 07, 2025 4:09 PM EDT | Last Updated: 29 minutes ago

Nova Scotia's caller accusation and privateness commissioner is simply a lawyer who has worked successful backstage signifier and for the Nova Scotia and Northwest Territories governments.

David Nurse's assignment was announced Monday. He takes implicit from Tricia Ralph, whose five-year word wrapped up astatine the extremity of February.

According to a quality merchandise from the Justice Department, Nurse worked arsenic a lawyer for the Nova Scotia Department of Justice and the province's Office of Immigration. He besides owned and operated a instrumentality firm, was a lawyer with the Northwest Territories authorities successful summation to working for the Halifax instrumentality firm McInnes Cooper successful the past.

In a statement, Nurse said "protecting Nova Scotians' close to cognize and balancing that with their close to privateness is an important work and 1 that I bash not instrumentality lightly.

"I look guardant to serving Nova Scotians successful this capableness and to moving collaboratively to fortify transparency and spot successful our nationalist institutions."

Nurse takes connected his caller relation arsenic the provincial authorities continues its reappraisal of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, enactment that appears to beryllium taking longer than expected.

• Justice Department cannot accidental erstwhile entree to accusation reappraisal volition beryllium complete

It besides comes connected the heels of concerns from his predecessor about the authorities of the strategy and that caller authorities government would person fixed section officials the powerfulness to cull entree to accusation requests if they decided they were vexatious, frivolous oregon lacking successful specificity.

In the look of those concerns and nationalist criticism, the Progressive Conservative authorities amended the authorities to region the specificity request and necessitate section officials to use to the privateness commissioner for support earlier being capable to cull an entree to accusation application.