The Toronto Star has won a victory in the Ontario Court of Appeal that pushes forward the right of news organizations to obtain electronic data from municipal governments, even if the agency holding has to roll up its sleeves and do some technical work.

Not sexy for non-journos, I know, but if you believe in the watchdog role of journalism and that governments shouldn't be able to use just any weasely excuse to hide the information that shows what they're doing, it's actually a big deal.

From the Star:

Municipal government institutions must produce any electronically stored information the public has a right to see, even if it requires using their technical expertise to develop new software, the Ontario Court of Appeal has ruled.

In a 3-0 decision yesterday, the court ordered the Toronto Police Services Board to respond "immediately" to requests from Star reporter Jim Rankin for information stored in two electronic databases, documenting contacts between citizens and police.

Yesterday's decision marks the first time the court has ruled on the scope of the public's and the media's right to access electronic records held by municipal government institutions through freedom of information requests, said Tony Wong, a lawyer representing the Star.

"This is an issue of substantial importance," said Wendy Matheson, a lawyer representing the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, which intervened in the case.

"In today's society, electronic recordkeeping is commonplace."

Ann Cavoukian, Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner, hailed yesterday's decision as a "landmark" ruling that says principles of openness and transparency apply to electronic as well as paper records in the government's possession.

Rankin began seeking the information in 2003 to test a Toronto police claim that officers do not engage in racial profiling.

Police refused the request, saying it would be time-consuming and require the use of a special computer program to replace personal information, such as names, with numbers.

Darrel Smith, a lawyer representing police, argued since the information would have to be reformatted, the databases did not meet the definition of a publicly accessible "record" under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Privacy Act.

The appeal court disagreed.

Writing on behalf of the panel yesterday, Justice Michael Moldaver said "the prevalence of computers in today's society" and their use by government institutions "as the primary means by which records are kept" must be borne in mind in determining the breadth of public access to electronically stored data.

Given those realities, the public's right to obtain this kind of information must be interpreted liberally, said Moldaver. Justices Robert Sharpe and Robert Blair agreed.

Here's the court's ruling.

The formal citation is:

Toronto Police Services Board v. ( Ontario) Information and Privacy Commissioner, 2009 ONCA 20