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"This will also be the first time this honourable court will consider the constitutional role of the premier in setting cabinet's agenda and address whether the premier's deliberations can reveal the substance of deliberations of cabinet," reads the notice of application.

Ontario's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act states that any records that "would reveal the substance of deliberations of the executive council or its committee" are exempt from disclosure under what's commonly referred to as the cabinet record exemption.

The province used that exemption to deny access to Ford's 23 mandate letters when CBC News first requested the records in the summer of 2018. 

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But in a 2-1 ruling released in January, the Ontario Court of Appeal found that both the privacy commissioner's original decision, and the Divisional Court's review of it, were reasonable in finding that mandate letters do not reveal the substance of cabinet deliberations and so must be disclosed. 

"The letters are the culmination of [the] deliberative process," wrote Justice Lorne Sossin. "While they highlight the decisions the premier ultimately made, they do not shed light on the process used to make those decisions or the alternatives rejected along the way.

"Accordingly, the letters do not threaten to divulge cabinet's deliberative process or its formulation of policies."

TM.