B.C. doctor made 126 requests to privacy czar over billing order

When he was ordered to repay nearly $700,000 for billing irregularities, a Vancouver doctor wanted to get information from provincial ministries about the decision. 

He ended up making more than 120 requests to British Columbia's privacy czar.

A delegate of the province's privacy commissioner ultimately found Dr. Nevio Cimolai had "ulterior and vindictive motives" for using the information process, repeatedly berated people in his requests and made unsubstantiated criminal allegations — and all of his ongoing requests were cancelled.

Now, a B.C. Supreme Court judge has dismissed Cimolai's bid to review the delegate's decision.

"The decision is both internally coherent and justified in light of the relevant facts and law. Dr. Cimolai has failed to show that it is unreasonable," wrote Justice Nitya Iyer in a ruling made public this week.

Billing ban

Central to the case is a 2021 decision banning Cimolai from billing the province's Medical Services Plan (MSP) for three years and ordering him to pay back at least $682,744. 

A 2017 audit of Cimolai's billing found "significant errors and improprieties," according to court records.

From that point, Cimolai repeatedly tried to compel the ministries of health, finance and the attorney general to disclose his personal information related to the MSP matter under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, according to Iyer.

From 2017 to 2022, Cimolai made 126 review requests and complaints to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner challenging aspects of the ministries' responses to his requests, and asked the privacy office 24 times to reconsider decisions "that were unfavourable towards him," Iyer said.

'Abuse of process'

The ministries argued to the privacy commissioner that Cimolai's requests were an "abuse of process," court records show.

Last year, Elizabeth Barker, a delegate of the commissioner, sided with the ministries and cancelled all of Cimolai's ongoing files. 

Barker found "most" of Cimolai's inquiries were not related to information issues but were about why he thinks the billing decision and the people involved in it are wrong. 

"Cimolai's submissions repeatedly berate the individuals involved in the MSP matter and contain inflammatory and unsubstantiated allegations of fraud and criminal conduct," Barker wrote in her findings, which were contained in court records.

The doctor's emails with the privacy commissioner's registrar also included "personal attacks" on ministries' lawyers, Barker said.

"Cimolai searched the internet for personal information about the ministries' lawyers … and he used that information to attack them in his submissions," she said, adding that the doctor used the freedom of information act as a "weapon."

Cimolai did not respond to an interview request from CBC News. 

Decision unreasonable: doctor

Cimolai applied for a judicial review of Barker's ruling, arguing the process leading to the decision was procedurally unfair and unreasonable. 

He took issue with the fact that Barker accepted affidavits from people whose identity was redacted and also alleged the delegate was biased and had conflicts of interest between her and lawyers involved in privacy commissioner files.

Iyer disagreed, saying Cimolai's arguments "reflect his personal views" and were not grounded in any professional guidelines.

Cimolai has not been banned from making information requests about his billing ban in the future but the ministries involved are seeking special costs against him, which have not yet been made public.

The court documents did not say whether Cimolai had repaid any of the amount he was deemed to have owed MSP.