The federal health ministry is refusing to name the 575 locations of medical marijuana producers in Canada.

In court documents, the ministry claims that giving out postal codes or home cities “would create a serious possibility that individuals could be identified,” according to Blacklock’s Reporter.

The non-disclosure has led to a federal lawsuit by Information Commissioner Caroline Maynard, who dismissed the ministry’s claim.

“Canadians have a right to request information from the government,” Maynard told the Commons government operations committee. “The right of access and need for transparency have not been suspended during the pandemic.”

In a federal court application, Maynard asked a judge to compel the ministry to disclose the hundreds of federally licensed distributors “authorized to produce or store large amounts of medical cannabis.”

The same records were requested by a Globe & Mail crime reporter three years ago.

Cities that are “large enough that their disclosure would not create a serious possibility of identification of individuals” should be named, said the court application.

No statement of defence has been filed by the health ministry and the court records are the first to detail the number of medical marijuana distributors in Canada.

A 2020 Statistics Canada retail trade report said legal cannabis dealers had the largest sales growth of any recession-bound retailers in the country.

Marijuana sales totalled $180 million in April, a 169% increase from the same period in 2019.