Delete Big Brother files, Quebec says Critics across the country blast Ottawa's personal database on Canadians: It's 'quite extraordinary and truly scary' RHÉAL SÉGUIN, RICHARD MACKIE, SHAWN McCARTHY and ROD MICKLEBURGH The Globe and Mail Thursday, May 18, 2000 Quebec City, Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver -- RHÉAL SÉGUIN in Quebec City RICHARD MACKIE in Toronto SHAWN McCARTHY in Ottawa ROD MICKLEBURGH in Vancouver The Quebec government is calling on Ottawa to destroy all information on Quebec residents contained in the massive, centralized databank compiled by Human Resources Development Canada. The governments of British Columbia and Ontario also expressed alarm as news of the database sparked a wave of criticism across the country. Human Resources Minister Jane Stewart faced a barrage of questions in the House of Commons, as the issue dominated Question Period. "The idea that they are keeping a repository of information about individuals is quite extraordinary and truly scary," said B.C. Attorney-General Andrew Petter. Quebec's Citizen Relations Minister, Robert Perreault, said compilation of the databank should be stopped immediately. "The way Ottawa is acting now, the fear of having Big Brother at our door may become a reality," he said. "We don't have such a database, and the federal government shouldn't have one on Quebeckers." Mr. Perreault promised to review agreements that Quebec has with Ottawa on the exchange of information and seek tighter controls. The federal government's actions may constitute a breach of Quebec's privacy-protection law, he said. In his annual report released Tuesday, Canada's Privacy Commissioner Bruce Phillips said a central database contains as many as 2,000 pieces of information on almost every Canadian citizen. The information has been garnered from income-tax returns, child-tax benefit statements, immigration and welfare files, the social-insurance master file, the National Training Program, the Canadian Job Strategy, employment services, employment insurance and job records. During Question Period, Ms. Stewart said that Canadians have no reason to fear the database. "The privacy commissioner says that we are working within the law, that the information now is secure and it's encrypted," she said. Opposition MPs countered that individual Canadians can have little confidence in Ms. Stewart or the Human Resources Department, which has been accused of bungling millions of dollars in job grants. "The minister's own departmental audits talk about inconsistent security measures and security risks not being appropriately addressed," Canadian Alliance MP Diane Ablonczy said. "We have a minister who cannot keep personal information secure. Why is the minister not concerned about that?" Ms. Stewart said that access to the database information is limited to a few authorized users. She added that the personal information will be used only for research and will not be sold to third parties. "I want to make sure that Canadians understand that individual names are not shared. Data are amalgamated so that we can follow programs we are designing and see the impact on Canadians, and that makes sense." Ms. Stewart insisted that the privacy commissioner "is not concerned about what is happening now." However, Mr. Phillips contradicted her, saying he has concerns about the very existence of the central database and the lack of strict legislative limits on how the informaiton is used. He agreed that the department has progessed in making the information more secure, but added that the database is still open to abuse, and that citizens still have the right to know how the information they are giving their governments is going to be used. "HRDC is taking reasonable steps with respect to security and protection against unauthorized access. But they are confusing security with the protection of privacy," he said. And Mr. Phillips said the government's claim that it is acting legally "is based on a restrictive and literal interpretation of the law." The government is prepared to review its existing privacy legislation to ensure that, in the computer age, it does protect citizens' right to privacy, Justice Minister Anne McLellan said. B.C.'s Mr. Petter argued that governments should have the right to compile personal information only for specific objectives such as qualifying for student loans. They should not be permitted to pool information for other than its stated purpose. The problem is increasingly acute because of the ability to gather information on individuals electronically, he said. "As a result, the values of personal privacy have to be held particularly high. In this new electronic age, personal information still belongs to individuals and we have to guard that principle more vigilantly than ever." "If [Ottawa] is trading in information, that is a problem and we need to do something about it." In Toronto, Ontario Premier Mike Harris said he shares Mr. Phillips' concerns and has asked provincial government officials to ensure that the information it accumulates on individuals is secure and cannot be compiled into files. The Ontario government keeps a wide variety of data, including medical treatments under OHIP, drivers licences and driving records, family-support payments, social-assistance eligibility and payments and scholarship applications. An investigation this spring by Ontario Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian revealed that data in the government's hands are not secure. She found that the government had broken its own rules on the protection of privacy in the summer of 1997. In that case, the finance ministry and the privatization secretariat had turned the lists of depositors in the Province of Ontario Savings Office over to two private companies advising the government on whether it could sell the agency and who might buy it. The savings office is a bank-like provincial agency. When complaints were made about that, the two private companies immediately returned the lists to the government. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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