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February 22, 2011 CMAJ News

Canada Health Infoway’s plans for highly-centralized electronic health records (EHR) systems within each province containing patient records that can be shared nationwide may not be feasible, a chorus of experts say.
That “shared record” model which Infoway has adopted was in large part discredited and discarded in the United Kingdom, note the critics, who say that inadequate consultation with the medical community has also been a key problem in the development of the system. They suggest Infoway has forged a “Soviet-type” over-centralized approach based on a top-down vision of a “federated set” of “health information data warehouses” with highly centralized access to “shared records” (figure 2, www2.infoway-inforoute.ca/Documents/EHRS-Blueprint-v2-Exec-Overview.pdf).
Infoway’s strategy has delivered few, independently-verified benefits to patients or health care providers, and may not even be achievable as designed, the analysts say.
“Massive centralized systems almost always fail,” warned Norman Archer, ehealth policy analyst with the eBusiness Research Centre at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, during a Jan. 25 ehealth conference in Toronto, Ontario.
Archer argues that the national ehealth focus should be on manageable solutions serving local patient populations no larger than those in each of Ontario’s 14 local health integration networks, or about one million patients, with patient information residing not in massive data warehouses, but “with the family physician.”
The idea of “one provincial centre with all the data in it is asking for trouble,” he says.
But Infoway rejects the notion that a shared records model is a centralized behemoth that is somehow incompatible with, or antithetical to, sharing of patient information at the physician level.
The model supports both data sharing (obtaining information from a repository) at the provincial or national level and data exchange between clinicians, Kirk Fergusson, Infoway’s vice-president, corporate affairs, writes in an email. “The Infoway Blueprint is a conceptual architecture and through the middleware layer — commonly known as the Health Information Access Layer (HIAL) — the architecture supports both data exchange and data sharing,”
“How a HIAL gets physically implemented is often where the confusion starts to creep in. The technology at the centre of a HIAL is an ‘integration broker’. An integration broker can facilitate data exchange and we’ve seen examples of this in practice for the past 15 years,” Fergusson adds. “An integration broker with additional services can also allow data sharing. So whether the same integration broker is physically used to do both data exchange and data sharing is a local deployment decision. In Canada today we have situations where in some jurisdictions the provincial integration broker is used for both data exchange and data sharing. In other jurisdictions, especially
CMAJ
© 2011 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors
Early release, published at www.cmaj.ca on February 22, 2011. Subject to revision.
the larger provinces, we have the use of two or more integration brokers for data exchange and data sharing. The Blueprint Infoway developed needed to be flexible enough to allow for these regional differences.”
Fergusson adds that from a physician’s perspective, it’s important that Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) serve their purposes and are cost effective. He also notes that repository models are now being effectively used within several provinces to compile clinical drug information and laboratory results.
The international experience with such a centralized approach appears to have been inauspicious.
Trisha Greenhalgh, a University of London researcher who was commissioned to review the UK’s approach to building a national infostructure, notes that there’s been a hasty retreat from the shared record model because it lacked demonstrable benefit; suffered “wicked” problems such as technical glitches and security concerns; and was less likely to succeed than smaller scale initiatives (www.ucl.ac.uk/news/scriefullreport.pdf). In short, she argues, small is beautiful.
“I’ve never yet seen a healthcare IT [information technology] programme in which government has a central driving role where that elementary principle is recognised,” says Greenhalgh, adding that Infoway’s blueprint is in the “same genre” as the UK’s now-repudiated master plan. Such approaches “are likely to be less efficient, less cost-effective, less safe, and the information they contain less trusted than smaller, more local systems.”
New Zealand, using a bottoms-up patient-physician approach and a mere $35 million was able to achieve to craft a far more effective system, Greenhalgh and a colleague recently argued (Health Serv J. 2010;120:12-3). “In New Zealand, a general practitioner is automatically sent all laboratory results, hospital discharge summaries and specialist letters electronically,” they wrote. “Any healthcare provider with a relevant interest may seek remote access to laboratory reports, discharge summaries and other document-based data from any public-sector hospital in the country. The amount of information exchanged electronically between general practices and other healthcare providers has increased by 33% annually since 2000. Patients can and do access information from a personal health record attached to their GP’s electronic medical record system.”
Archer cites the $200 million Ontario Laboratory Information System as a prime example of a centralized effort gone awry. “This is a mess that I cannot believe,” he says, noting that it has yielded almost no clinical benefits and that the province’s auditor-general says it’s bedeviled by technical problems (http://69.164.72.173/en/reports_en/ehealth_en.pdf).
Meanwhile, some provinces are already moving to chart a new course. Brenda Jameson, chief operating officer for Saskatchewan Health’s Information Solutions Centre, says the province is developing its own ehealth strategic plan and intends to take control of an issue “that lacked clear ownership.”
While Infoway laid the groundwork for the creation of very large data repositories, without patient data from clinicians “they aren’t much use,” she says. “Throwing more money at this is not necessarily the answer.”
Karim Keshavjee, a Toronto-based physician and ehealth researcher who has provided advice to Infoway on its ongoing efforts to rewrite its blueprint, says the agency
CMAJ
© 2011 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors
has an old-fashioned “Soviet” approach to harnessing health data, and needs to work much harder to consult with the medical community.
“They should take their proposal for a new blueprint to the whole clinical community,” advises Keshavjee, who frets that money is being thrown “at the wind” in a rush to spend government stimulus money on projects that have not been independently assessed. Under the federal government’s economic action plan, Infoway received $500 million “to speed up implementation of electronic medical record systems in physicians’ offices, and to develop electronic systems that connect points of service” such as hospitals, pharmacies and community care facilities (www.actionplan.gc.ca/initiatives/eng/index.asp?mode=7&initiativeID=63).
One physician who recently left Infoway’s ranks says privately that a lack of input from physicians is a major problem. With only one doctor on its 11-member board of directors, physicians have but a “token,” presence, he says.
As a consequence, Infoway’s blueprint, the technical plan by which the agency maps national interoperability, “is fundamentally wrong from a clinical perspective” because it puts the needs of patients and physicians last, he says, adding that interoperability should be “the icing on the cake,” not a starting objective. “It’s upside down, They should have started with primary care.”
Fergusson counters that value for clinicians and patients has always been at core of Infoway’s mandate and that physicians have had considerable input. Among doctors who now serve, or have served on Infoway’s board of directors are Dr. Anne Doig, past president of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), Dr. Brian Postl, dean of medicine at the University of Manitoba and Chair of the Canada Institute for Health Information, and Dr. Michael Golbey, chair of the CMA board of directors.
“We also have standing physician, nursing, and pharmacy reference groups which bring together clinical leaders from across the country,” Fergusson writes. “Their members provide us with valued advice based on their diverse expertise and experience. For example, many participated in our recent ‘Blueprint 2015’ visioning process, helping to shape our future directions.”
“It is also important that we ensure a strong clinical voice within our various investment programs,” he adds. “For example, the Canadian Association of Radiologists and many of its members have been involved in our diagnostic imaging program and we have recruited physician leaders to participate in our work on standards, telepathology, consent directives and e-prescribing. Our programs have also been informed by broad surveys of clinicians and focus groups with direct care providers.” – Paul Christopher Webster, Toronto, Ont. and Wayne Kondro, CMAJes: Big is better? Small is beautiful?

STELMACH REBUKED OVER ALBERTA GOVERNMENT SECRECY

BY KAREN KLEISS
POSTMEDIA NEWS
JANUARY 13, 2011

EDMONTON — Alberta’s Information and Privacy commissioner publicly castigated the government of Premier Ed Stelmach Thursday for failing to keep an election promise to foster accountable and transparent government.

Frank Work issued the rebuke in the opening message to his most recent annual report, which was distributed to MLAs on Thursday afternoon.
“People who want our votes . . . espouse accountability and transparency. The first of Premier Stelmach’s five priorities when he ran for election in 2006 was to govern with integrity and transparency,” Mr. Work said in the two-page message.

“I cannot let this occasion pass without commenting on what I see as a lack of leadership at the provincial level with respect to access to information,” he said. “ . . . What I do not see, for the most part, is leadership at the political level in terms of getting information out, being proactive and fostering a culture of openness.”

Mr. Work suggested government employees responsible for releasing information are routinely grilled by deputy ministers who take a long time to sign off on access requests.
In particular, he said, the government delays releasing information requested by journalists.

“If [civil servants] perceive that access to information is frowned upon or that the unwritten rule is to be extra cautious, we will act accordingly,” he said. “It is a matter of leadership. It is a matter of those who promise transparency delivering on the promise and it is as simple as sending the instruction down the ranks. It is the difference between a culture of secrecy and a culture of openness. If you are going to promise transparency then embrace it.”

© Edmonton Journal

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JUDGE CONVICTS SASKATCHEWAN WOMAN WHO WOULDN’T FILL IN LONG-FORM CENSUS

Postmedia News
January 13, 2011

SASKATOON — A Saskatchewan woman was found guilty in Saskatoon provincial court Thursday morning of refusing to fill in the long-form census in 2006.
“I’m stunned,” Sandra Finley said outside court immediately after the verdict. The Saskatoon woman said she will study the written decision as soon as she can and discuss with her lawyer whether to file an appeal.

Finley argued during her trial that she objected to the government’s hiring of Lockheed Martin Canada Ltd. to provide computer hardware and software and printing of forms for the census.
She also invoked the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, saying it protects citizens from being forced to turn over “a biographical core of personal information” to the state.

She said on Thursday that the issue is an important one. Finley doesn’t feel Canadians should be forced to reveal personal information to the federal government, such as their ethnicity, sexual preference, occupation or other information.

“I feel strongly about this,” Finley said. “That’s not acceptable in a democracy.”
Finley was particularly surprised by the guilty verdict, in light of the federal government’s recent changes to census requirements. Stephen Harper’s Conservative cabinet decided last year that the long-form census would no longer be mandatory, although a shorter one would be mandatory.

© The StarPhoenix

http://www.vancouversun.com/Judge+convicts+Saskatchewan+woman+wouldn+fill+long+form+census/4103779/story.html

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EVIL TO HOLD BACK INFO ABOUT PRODUCTS THAT COULD HARM KIDS

Ethan Baron, The Province
Oct. 20, 2010

There’s a new monster under our children’s beds, and his name is Stephen Harper. Tory information control has become so obsessive that it’s putting the lives and health of kids in B.C. and across Canada at risk.

It was only through an Access to Information Act request by my Postmedia colleague Sarah Schmidt that Canadians were made aware this week of the sky-high levels of deadly toxic cadmium in some children’s jewelry…

As with lead, health concerns about cadmium and children focus on ingestion, through swallowing objects containing the metal or chewing or sucking on them. The U.S. health department reports that ingesting large amounts of cadmium can be fatal, and long-term exposure through ingestion can damage kidneys and weaken bones.

On Tuesday, federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq begged companies making and selling kids’ jewelry containing cadmium to stop, saying that because no regulations exist to stipulate safe levels, a recall could not be ordered.

Shamefully, she didn’t then reveal which products contained cadmium…

The refusal to identify the brands of cadmium-containing jewelry, violates Access to Information Act Section 20(2), which requires disclosure of such test results…But this is a federal government so profoundly obsessed with secrecy that it has had bureaucrats hold meetings without recorded minutes, has had ministerial and political staff censor information to be released under federal law, has refused to release documents on possible Afghan detainee abuse even to security-cleared members of an independent inquiry…

FULL ARTICLE: Click Here

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MOUNTIES END PROBE INTO DESTRUCTION OF EMAILS WITH NO CHARGES LAID

October 16, 2010
Dean Beeby
The Canadian Press

OTTAWA—The Mounties have decided not to lay charges in a case in which sensitive government emails were deliberately destroyed, ending a two-year probe regarded as an overdue test of Canada’s information law.

The file, involving a nasty internal scrap at the National Gallery of Canada, was first referred to the Mounties by gallery officials in 2008. And earlier this year Canada’s information watchdog alerted justice officials after her own investigation found “records responsive to an access to information request were destroyed and individuals were counselled to destroy records.”

The RCMP’s review of the case focused on Section 67.1 of the Access to Information Act, which provides penalties of up to two years in jail and a $10,000 fine for destroying government records or even counselling someone to conceal them from a requester.

The section was added to the Act in 1999, after several high-profile cases in which military documents about Somalia, as well as Red Cross records, were shredded to prevent embarrassing public disclosures.

But in the 11 years since, no one has ever been convicted or even charged under the section — and the RCMP probe was being watched closely to see whether the law was effective.

FULL ARTICLE: Click Here

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INFO WATCHDOG WIDENS PROBE INTO TORY AIDE’S ACTIONS

Dean Beeby
The Canadian Press
Oct. 13 2010

OTTAWA — Canada’s information watchdog has ordered a fresh probe into alleged political interference by a close aide to Conservative cabinet minister Christian Paradis.

The decision by Suzanne Legault means her office is now investigating four complaints about potentially illegal meddling by ministers’ offices in the release of documents requested under the Access to Information Act.

Legault initiated the latest investigation after reviewing 1,200 pages of internal emails involving Sebastien Togneri.

FULL ARTICLE: Click Here

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FIVE YEARS LATER, INFORMATION ACCESS IS STILL STALLED

Gloria Galloway And Bill Curry
The Globe and Mail
Friday, Oct. 08, 2010

OTTAWA- Next month, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s unfulfilled promise to strengthen
Canada’s access-to-information laws will be five years old.

The pledge stands out among the Conservative pledges made during the 2005-06 election campaign that brought Mr. Harper to power, because most have since been checked off. The Harper government’s first piece of legislation was a broad package of accountability rules, yet stronger access laws were left for another day.

The Conservatives now show little interest in the file. The government says it remains “committed to transparency and openness” but has thwarted repeated attempts to reform the access-to-information system. It argues reform is complex and requires extensive consultations.

No governing party or public servant eagerly turns over embarrassing documents. But Mr. Harper promised to be different from the Liberals, who left a system that was declared in need of a massive overhaul.

Instead, political interference in access requests has forced the resignation of a cabinet aide and the number of complaints received by the federal Information Commissioner is up 17 per cent since the Conservatives came to power. Major government departments have hired outside consultants to clear the backlog of delayed files, often by asking journalists and other requesters to simply abandon their requests…

FULL ARTICLE: Click Here

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MOTHER FILES CLASS ACTION SUIT OVER INFANT BLOOD SAMPLING IN B.C.
By DARRYL GREER
Courthouse News Services
May 27, 2010

VANCOUVER, B.C. (CN) – A mother has filed a class action accusing British Columbia’s Provincial Health Services Authority of collecting blood samples from every infant born in B.C. and the Yukon since 1999 without permission.

Natalie Docherty and her two children, identified as L.D. and E.D., say the agency collected blood samples from the infants before sending them off to a lab to test for “18 detectable disorders.” The samples were later sent to a storage facility where the authority holds nearly 800,000 sample cards, which are accessed by researchers for “unknown research and testing purposes,” the complaint states.

“Potential users of the blood sample cards include law enforcement personnel and agencies, coroners, health regulators and health insurers,” the complaint states. “The blood sample storage facility amounts to a legally unauthorized fully functional DNA database. Expansion of the range of information that can be extracted from blood is reasonably foreseeable.”

The agency allegedly failed to tell parents that the blood samples would be used for anything other than testing for diseases and conditions, and failed to get patients’ consent to store the samples.

The plaintiffs want the blood samples destroyed and demand damages for breach of privacy and breach of their rights against unlawful search and seizure.

The class is represented by Jason B. Gratl.

SOURCE: http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/05/27/27621.htm

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UK SCHOOL CHILDREN MONITORED ‘AS CLOSELY AS INMATES’ BY CCTV
March 16, 2010

Children in the United Kingdom are being monitored as closely as inmates in prisons as schools break the law to introduce scores of covert CCTV cameras, a ground-breaking new study has found.

The vast majority of secondary schools use more than 20 CCTV cameras to capture children’s movements in corridors, playgrounds and even the toilets. But many are breaking the law by failing to make it clear to pupils where cameras are located and how the images might be used. At least one unnamed school has installed cameras with microphones in classrooms and corridors and given staff earpieces to listen in on conversations.

The spread of CCTV in schools is documented in a study by a researcher based at Salford University. Dr Emmeline Taylor studied surveyed 24 comprehensives in the north west of England and discovered that 23 had installed more than 20 cameras. Out of three studied in-depth, two had gone as far as placing them in the toilets. Dr Taylor also found that schools are increasingly using biometric technology – such as fingerprint, iris or facial recognition systems – for ‘mundane’ reasons such as lending library books. Parents are often in the dark about the biometric data taken from their children or the extent of CCTV. ‘There has been very little attempt to inform the general public, including parents, about the extent that schools are using surveillance devices, including biometric surveillance,’ said Dr Taylor. ‘The level of surveillance that some pupils are subjected to on a daily basis rivals that of international airports and prisons.’

SOURCE: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1258259/Children-monitored-closely-inmates-CCTV-schools.html

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SCATHING REPORT DETAILS BOTCHED E-HEALTH PLANS
By Vaughn Palmer
Vancouver Sun
February 18, 2010

The B.C. Liberal drive for electronic records-keeping in the health care system is behind schedule, over budget, poorly planned and still a long way from realizing any benefits to patients, according to auditor general John Doyle.

Doyle released a report Wednesday Click Here that chronicled a list of failings so comprehensive as to raise doubts about whether the Electronic Health Records project could be said to be “managed” in any proper sense whatsoever…

The report marks the second time in a week that the auditor general has been highly critical of electronic record keeping in the health care sector. Last Wednesday, he blasted the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority for inadequate security on the electronic records it maintains on some 600,000 patients receiving residential care and other services. (Report: Click Here Article, Vancouver Sun: Click Here) The problems were so extensive Doyle held off releasing that report for six months, until the authority could address more than 100 recommendations for improving security and protecting patient privacy.

VAUGHN PALMER: COLUMNS ON THIS TOPIC Click Here or Click Here

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FIPA DENOUNCES WASTE OF $180 MILLION ON PROGRAM TO COLLECT AND SWAP ‘UNPRECEDENTED AMOUNT OF PERSONAL INFORMATION’ ON CITIZENS
February 11, 2010

In a letter sent to Premier Gordon Campbell today, FIPA Executive Director Darrell Evans criticized the announcement in the Speech From the Throne that $180 million will be spent to create an “Integrated Case Management system”(ICM).

“The ICM system will have a severe negative effect on both the privacy rights of British Columbians and the public purse,” Evans wrote. “It will involve massive and unprecedented collection, use and disclosure of personal information by the provincial government.”

In light of reports blasting the provincial government for inadequate policies, care and competence in protecting the privacy of citizens, this kind of project should be put on hold, at least until adequate study and consultation has taken place, as recommended by the Information and Privacy Commissioner in last year’s annual report.

FIPA letter to Premier Campbell Click Here

Government news release, NEW CASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM TO IMPROVE SERVICE AND SECURITY Click Here

Editorial, Times Colonist: GIANT DATABASE A THREAT TO PRIVACY Click Here or Click Here

FIPA article: INTEGRATED CASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM PUTS CLIENT PRIVACY AND ORGANIZATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS AT RISK Click Here

Information and Privacy Commissioner Annual Report 2008-2009 Click Here

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US GOVERNMENT POSTING WEALTH OF DATA TO INTERNET
January 22, 2010

US Government Posting Wealth of Data to Internet
The Obama administration on Friday is posting to the Internet a wealth of government data from all Cabinet-level departments, on topics ranging from child car seats to Medicare services. The mountain of newly available information comes a year and a day after President Barack Obama promised on his first full day on the job an open, transparent government. Under a Dec. 8 White House directive, each department must post online at least three collections of “high-value” government data that never have been previously disclosed.

Required to release the three new data sets are the departments of State, Treasury, Defence, Justice, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, Education, Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security and the Environmental Protection Agency, the offices of the U.S. Trade Representative and the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and the Council of Economic Advisers.

* The Transportation Department will post ratings for 2,400 lines of tires for consumer safety based on tire tread wear, traction performance and temperature resistance.

* The Labor Department will release the names of 80,000 workplaces where injuries and illness have occurred over the past 10 years.

* The Medicare database has previously been available for a fee of $100 on CD ROM. Under the Obama initiative, it can be downloaded free, providing detailed breakdowns of payments for Medicare services.

* The Medicare data will be sortable by the type of medical service provided.

* A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration database rates car seats for ease of use, evaluating the simplicity of instruction sheets, labels, vehicle installation features and securing the child.

“We’re democratizing data,” White House Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra said Thursday in an interview.

Open government groups are supportive. All the new data collections will be added to the government’s Web site called ‘data.gov’.

Source: Click Here

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INFORMATION AND PRIVACY COMMISSIONER OF BC APPOINTED AS DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL
January 20th, 2010

Information and Privacy Commissioner David Loukidelis has been appointed British Columbia’s Deputy Attorney General. The appointment will be effective February 1, 2010.

The BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association (FIPA) wishes to thank the outgoing Commissioner for his exemplary work and leadership during a trying period for Freedom of Information and privacy in the province.

“Commissioner Loukidelis did an outstanding job as Commissioner and we hope his successor is of equally high quality,” said FIPA Executive Director Darrell Evans. “His decisions and recommendations showed a wisdom and long term vision which will continue to set the tone in FOI and privacy matters for years to come.”

Loukidelis has become an internationally-recognized expert in access to information and privacy protection issues, and has written hundreds of access-to-information and privacy decisions under B.C.’s public and private sector access and privacy laws. In addition to serving as Information and Privacy Commissioner, he has served as Registrar of Lobbyists under the Lobbyists Registration Act.

Loukidelis was a founding member of the BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association and served as its president in the early 1990s.

The government has said it will appoint an Acting Commissioner in the next few days, but a permanent replacement for Commissioner Loukidelis will require the unanimous recommendation of a special legislative committee.

Link to the government press release: Click Here

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FBI FAKED TERROR ALERTS TO GET PHONE RECORDS

By Chris Williams
20th January 2010
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/20/fbi_phone/

The FBI fabricated terrorism emergencies to obtain thousands of phone records between 2002 and 2006, it’s been revealed.

The Bureau created “exigent letters” to get around rules that had already been significantly loosened by the Patriot Act. The letters were used to obtain some 2,000 phone records, The Washington Post reports.

Washington Post and New York Times journalists were among the targets.

The internal concerns were confirmed in emails that are part of an investigation by the Justice Department’s inspector general, which is due to report this month.

As well as fabricating emergencies, FBI counter-terror investigators obtained phone records by simply leaning on operators, getting approval after the fact with blanket authorisations.

The Patriot Act allowed investigators to effectively self-certify their requests for communications data, using a “National Security Letter” (NSL), a type of subpoena without judicial oversight. The Justice Department has found that by fabricating emergencies and sending NSLs after it had obtained phone records, the FBI violated what civil liberties protections remained.

In response, the FBI claimed that although it did not follow statutory process to obtain the records, they were all legitimate targets for investigation.

“The [Justice Department] report is not expected to find — nor were there — any intentional attempts to obtain records that counterterrorism personnel knew they were not legally entitled to obtain,” said assistant director of public affairs Michael Kortan.

He added all the numbers obtained have been deleted and that “steps were taken as early as 2006 to ensure similar situations do not occur in the future”. However, The Washington Post said it had seen emails showing FBI lawyers sounded the alarm in 2005.

The US NSL system is similar to the UK’s Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) regime for authorities to obtain communications data from phone companies and ISPs. Each has no judicial oversight and investigators effectively self-certify their requests.

The UK system is much broader, however, with no requirement that national security is threatened and many more agencies, such as local councils, empowered to access records.

Oversight is provided by a former High Court judge appointed by the Prime Minister, who produces an annual report. In 2008, the most recent available, he says that 595 errors were made but added: “I am not convinced that any useful purpose would be served by providing a more detailed report of these errors.”

The government is developing a major extension to communi-cations surveillance that would require internet firms to retain huge amounts of extra data, under the Interception Moderni-sation Programme. Ministers have argued that that RIPA will be sufficient to govern access to the newly available terabytes of private information.

Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham has announced that her office has been examining the PRIME police database, following a complaint about PRIME to BC’s Solicitor General by the BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA).

BCCLA’s complaint states:

“The B.C. Civil Liberties Association has discovered that as many as 85% of British Columbia’s adult population have ‘master name records’ in the PRIME-BC police database. This database is used by police to prepare criminal record checks, including the controversial “negative police contact” section of those checks that can restrict access to jobs or volunteer opportunities. The BCCLA has written the Solicitor General to ask her to investigate.

“The most recent annual report for PRIMECorp, the crown corporation that administers the database, indicates that the database has 4,452,165 master name records, and B.C.’s entire population as of October 1, 2010 older than 15 years of age, was estimated by BC Stats to be 3,844,531. Even if as many as a quarter of master name records are duplicates due to aliases, misspellings or out-of-province residence, 86% of the adult population of B.C. would still be recorded in the database.

“While PRIME-BC was introduced in the Legislature as a way to better combat serial killers, sexual offenders, and career criminals, it would seem that minor traffic violations are enough to land B.C. residents in the police database, indefinitely. There is little in the way of protocol guiding how entries are made, how long information is kept, and the BCCLA frequently receives complaints about incorrect information being impossible to alter.”

BCCLA NEWS RELEASE Click Here

The Commissioner responded publicly by confirming that her office has been examining the issue of employment-related criminal records checks for several months and will take the recent concerns voiced by the BC Civil Liberties Association about the into consideration.

“This is a very complex issue involving multiple jurisdictions, multiple data linkages, competing interests and the overlap of at least five different laws,” said Denham. “And at the end of the day, we need to be certain that the process is fair and justifiable, both ethically and legally,” she said.

“In the past, the PRIME database has been considered a highly confidential tool for law enforcement in their daily activities. If PRIME is going to be used increasingly for background checks, citizens will likely demand greater access to it to ensure any information contained therein is accurate.”

The commissioner said that her office’s examination will include consultations with the Solicitor General, civil society groups, the law enforcement community and other information and privacy commissioners. “This issue is not unique to British Columbia. It’s important to involve a broad set of stakeholders in our analysis,” she said.