Urgent Update on Alberta Health Info Act Action

Written By: sthompson
Date: 2004-09-27 13:46:00
<a href="/article/134610595-urgent-update-on-alberta-health-info-act-action">Article Link</a>

# 410, 9925 - 109 Street Edmonton, Alberta Canada, T5K 2J8 Tel: (780) 422-6860 Toll Free within Alberta: 310-0000 Fax: (780) 422-5682 Web: www.oipc.ab.ca Email: [email protected] Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner Outsourcing and the USA PATRIOT Act : An open letter from Alberta?s Information and Privacy Commissioner There is currently a great deal of activity going on across the country with respect to the issue of the USA PATRIOT Act and implications for personal information of Canadians held by American companies or affiliates of American companies. The issue first surfaced in British Columbia with British Columbia's Information and Privacy Commissioner conducting an investigation into the dimensions of the issue. Like most of the other Commissioners in Canada, I am following Mr. Loukidelis' progress with great interest. The Information and Privacy Commissioners of Canada, myself included, have been consulted by Mr. Loukidelis and we have given him our input in terms of what issues we think his investigation should address and what the concerns are for us in our respective jurisdictions. Of course, we are awaiting the release of his findings with great interest. I am not sure that I could add anything to Mr. Loukidelis' undertaking by conducting an identical investigation here in Alberta. I would speculate that the issues are very much the same in every province in Canada. I suspect that, Mr. Loukidelis having been the first Commissioner to undertake such an investigation, he will have the benefit of the best submissions from a number of organizations. If I were to try to duplicate his efforts, I would get fewer and possibly less detailed submissions than he has received or I would get the same submissions. The other factors which must be considered are costs and time. Commissioner Loukidelis received $75,000 from the British Columbia Government to conduct his review. That amount was in addition to his yearly budget. His review and issuance of a final report is expected to be completed by the end of September, 2004. He found it necessary to extend the time for completion because he received over 500 submissions in response to his request for public submissions. Therefore, what I proposed to do is to continue to be in touch with Mr. Loukidelis, monitoring the progress in his investigation. When his report is released, I will review it closely, and my office will analyze it with an eye to determining its applicability to the situation in Alberta, namely, what the risks are with respect to the personal information of Albertans, and what remedies there might be. I will issue a formal statement of our findings in that regard. Frank Work, Q.C. Information and Privacy Commissioner September 2004 Press Release: For Immediate Release September 27, 2004 Vive le Canada.ca Raises Alberta Health Privacy Concerns Edmonton--A popular web-based organization is calling for the Privacy Commissioner of Alberta to investigate whether the Alberta Health Information Act can fully protect the health information of Albertans. Vive le Canada.ca is concerned that the information gathered by U.S.-linked health service providers could be obtained by U.S intelligence agencies under the USA PATRIOT Act, and is supporting calls by an NDP Opposition the Privacy Commissioner investigate that possibility. The USA PATRIOT Act was enacted after the terrorist attacks of September 11. Any U.S. person, business, or organization can be forced to disclose information, including large databases of information, to U.S. intelligence agencies based simply on the suspicion of some link to "terrorism". Although the Act can't be applied to Canadian-owned corporations, a Canadian affiliate of a U.S. corporation could be served with the Act. Some Alberta public services, such as certain genetic tests, are outsourced to U.S-linked service providers, meaning that they too could potentially fall under the jurisdiction of the USA PATRIOT Act. "It's very difficult to know whether our privacy would be protected in a case where the jurisdiction of Alberta privacy legislation and the jurisdiction of U.S. antiterrorism legislation collided," said Susan Thompson, founder of Vive le Canada.ca. "That means our health information could end up in U.S. hands. We raised the exact same concern in our national campaign to boycott testing of the next Canadian census. In that case our information was being outsourced to U.S.-based defence contractor Lockheed Martin. Most Canadians were outraged that their information could go to an American company and possibly U.S. intelligence agencies under the PATRIOT Act. Albertans should be just as concerned." The issue has already been raised in B.C, where on May 28, 2004 the B.C. privacy commissioner announced that he will examine the implications of the U.S. PATRIOT Act for British Columbian's personal information when that information is gathered by U.S.-linked service providers due to the outsourcing of public services. The Alberta privacy commissioner has said that he is waiting for the BC report, and an Alberta investigation is not necessary. However, Vive le Canada.ca learned last week that the BC report will not appear until after Alberta's Health Information Act Review Committee has finished its work. In Alberta, NDP Opposition MLA Raj Pannu, a member of the Select Special Health Information Act Review Committee, has suggested that the committee request the Information and Privacy Commissioner to undertake an investigation prior to the committee's final report. Vive le Canada.ca is calling on its Alberta members to send emails in support of Pannu's proposal to the chair of the committee and the privacy commissioner. -30- Contact: Susan Thompson http://www.vivelecanada.ca email: [email protected] (780) 624-5229 Shannon Phillips Communications Officer NDP Opposition t. 780.916.3937 f. 780.415.0701 [email protected] #501, Legislature Annex 9718 - 107 St Edmonton, AB T5K 1E5 Take Action: <a href="http://www.vivelecanada.ca/article.php?story=20040917105914212">Take Action Now to Protect Health Information Privacy in Alberta!</a>

Perhaps this is the reason Klein wants to privatize healthcare . BC, Alberta and Sask have quite a bit of oil, and it makes sense that the American itelligence agencies want to merge security data in Alberta with that in the USA. Arguments of Sovereignty aside, Alberta was invaded for its oil after the NEP wiped out the economy and Ralph Klein was groomed to ensure that our key extractive resources were bought up for a fraction of the dollar value they were worth. Alberta was invaded right around the same time Kuwait was, in my opinion.

You got that right! Canada has suffered a parasitic take over by the US.Slowly we are inundated by US media.Slowly they take our resources and don't pay(California Power Scandal,to mention one).
Now they want a link to our "Health Care Information".Bullshit,let em stew inb thew mess they have made.are we not a sovergn nation,unbeholding to the US?!

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A little peice of heaven is found in good deeds.

I received the first letter of response as many others have, I sent this letter saying let's do our own study and in response received a copy of the first response. So apparently they are not getting the message.

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If I stand for my country today...will my country be here to stand for me tomorrow?

Just a warning to all those involved in this action. It looks like a low-level court in the US has struck down this contentious part of the PATRIOT Act. The government is appealing, and I'm sure this will go all the way to the Supreme Court. In the meantime, I would think this part of the act remains in place. Those in favour of contracting out will probably pick up on this. I think we can say with assurance that the contentious parts of the PATRIOT Act will be in operation for at least 2 years as the case goes to the Supreme Court. Also, Congress keeps trying to slip similar provisions into other Acts. Finally, if there is another terrorist attack in the future, we could see these provisions come back again. So, those in favour of contracting out will be invoking a false sense of security. If our data is in the hands of a US company, and a PATRIOT-like Act comes into play again, our data is as good as lost. (Especially if Bush is re-elected). <a href="http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=16603&c=282">ACLU Press Release</a> --- If you don't like these ideas, I've got others. --Marshall McLuhan

You are right. We should not give up until a Canadian company is awarded this contract, if only to keep the jobs at home. --- "If you must kill a man, it costs you nothing to be polite about it." Winston Churchill

Can any of you veterans to this site tell me what the outcome of this issue was? Is our information still being contracted to the Americans? I see there have been no further comments since 2004.

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The problems in the world today cannot be solved with the level of thinking that created them."
-- Albert Einstein