Category: Health

ANONYMOUS (OR NOT)

I read that medical information should be shared if it is anonymous. I used to agree with that.  Why would I not agree if everything is above-board, if the information was being shared to improve the health care of people and if things were done morally and ethically.  But then I found out how the medical system really works.

These posts have examples of how, essentially, all our information has been shared non-anonymously:

-Post – Auditor General – PARIS report – 5/24/2010 – Vancouver Coastal Health audit showed that there was virtually no protection of patient information. And there was no reason to believe that any other hospital database was any better.

  • Post – Our Information is not protected – Part I – 12/27/2015 – researchers could, and were, downloading and sharing our information with no detection.  They could give it to anyone else, who could also “share” this information, again without detection.

–  Post – Our Information is not protected – Part II – 12/29/2015 – more examples of how our information is shared non-anonymously

Post – Patenting DNA – 2016-02-04 – if you collect enough information on an individual, even if it is anonymous, you can identify who they are.

And we know, logically, that this is just the tip of the iceberg. The ones the media happen to find out about.  The rest are either not caught or they are covered up.

Now, I would only agree to my information being shared conditionally. The conditions being:

  1. I am told if information is being collected for “others” and not for my direct personal health care
  2. I am told who it is being shared with.
  3. I am told how it will be used.
  4. I have proof that the information collected under my name is being adequately protected.
  5. It can be proven to me that this information will only be shared anonymously.
  6. I can get this in writing.
  7. There will be severe penalties if any of the conditions listed above are “violated”.

This, of course, presumes that I have any say in the collection and sharing of my information, which in our low-grade so-called democracy; I don’t. The medical system and their friends do what they want.  I am, like other patients except the “special” patients,  just fodder for them to feed off.

But any information that I determine they don’t need for my direct health care (and that is very little) I mix up between truth/lies. The information then becomes useless.

These people in the medical/government business just steal, lie and con. Why? They eventually lose all trust and it just comes back on them.  What are they getting in return for taking such risks?  Or did they really think they could do this forever with impunity?  Are they that arrogant/narcissistic?  Apparently, they are.

WHAT CAN YOU DO – MEDICAL

Number of Breaches Unknown

“The total number of intentional health-related privacy breaches in Ontario is unknown because of legislation allowing hospitals to handle such violations internally and report them at their own discretion. The commission is notified of about 400 health-related privacy breaches every year and a Star investigation of eight Toronto health institutions unveiled 218 privacy violations last year, the majority of which went unreported to the commission”. (c)  So, the majority of privacy “breaches” you won’t hear about because they are being unreported (covered up), or, as in BC, legalized; and I believe it is the same in all provinces.

Mandatory Reporting of Breaches (or Not)

“Michael Crystal, a lawyer currently representing thousands of patients” said it should be ‘mandatory for hospitals to report all privacy leaks.” (a)  “69.5 percent of Canadian respondents stated that there should be a public listing hosted by the Canadian government that lists which hospitals have had breaches of patient health records”. (c)  I suggest this should include “minor” breaches that are not reported to the privacy commissioner and the so-called “major” ones that are reported to the privacy commissioner.  Otherwise, we will be hearing a lot of “we didn’t think this was serious” excuses.  We should be informed as to what defines minor vs major breaches.

“If hospitals were obligated under law to report privacy violations, the (privacy) commission would be able to identify trends, investigate specific areas of concern and help hospitals prevent future incidents, Beamish said” (Ontario privacy commissioner Brian Beamish). (a) This will also help reduce the number of cases that the medical/government organizations can cover-up without being caught.  This must also include any breaches by people/organizations with whom our information is shared.

We, the people, need this transparency to ensure accountability.

For the status on your province on mandatory reporting see Ontario lags other provinces in updating health privacy laws, Olivia Carville, 06 Feb 2015, Toronto Star

Identify with whom our information is shared

The medical/government business in Ontario is discussing making changes so it looks like, to use a metaphor, they are trying to lock the front door (hospital violations), so people don’t notice that the backdoor is being left wide open (the researchers, suppliers, and other organizations, etc. with whom our information is being shared). We need to know exactly with whom our information is being shared, under what circumstances, whether our consent has been obtained (real not manufactured), what are the conditions that these “others” must meet to protect our information and are these conditions being met.

Audits

We need on-going audits of all people/organizations that handle our information to ensure that our privacy is protected. The audits must be done by people not appointed by the medical/government system.   ‘In the US, the government has taken several steps to encourage health care providers to improve the security of their information technology systems. In addition to requiring public disclosure of breaches — an incentive in the form of the proverbial “wall of shame” — the US government will be dropping in on some health care providers” to “check compliance with privacy requirements”.   “Under their privacy act, health organizations are required to have conducted a risk analysis and implemented policies to protect patient privacy. The maximum annual penalty for violating the act is US$1.5 million.” (e)

Suing for Privacy Breach

“The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled earlier this year that patients can sue hospitals if their privacy was breached.” (d)  This should be the law in all provinces and include any people/organizations who have our information.

Prosecutions

“Beamish told the Star he wanted serious breaches to result in more prosecutions to deter nosy health professionals” and the other people/organizations with our information. (a) But we also need to hold accountable those who are suppose to protect our privacy – the politicians, healthcare executives…   We need to know why they aren’t doing their job.  And we need to be able to prosecute them.

In some provinces the health ministry may refer a serious breach to the privacy commissioner who investigates. If the privacy commissioner believes there are grounds for prosecution they refer it to the attorney general, who may refer it to the police to reinvestigate.

So much wasted time and effort because somewhere along the line the case gets dropped.

“Privacy commissioner Brian Beamish has previously told the Star that confusion over the roles of the attorney general, the Health Ministry and the privacy office have also hamstrung potential prosecutions.” (b) All these years and nothing has been done to fix the situation.  No wonder there has been zero prosecutions in Ontario, where thousands of privacy violations happen every year.  But, I’m sure the politicians have been far too busy going to photo-ops, or lining their pockets, to make adjustments.  Or is it just “convenient” to have it this way.

“Ontario is not alone. British Columbia, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island and Yukon have not seen any prosecutions under health privacy laws.” (b)

“Alberta has had three successful prosecutions, Manitoba has had one and Newfoundland and Labrador has had two.” (b) Considering the extent of the problem, this is a farcical record in any province.

Covering up the extent of breaches, or sharing of information, so patients will trust the medical business is not an answer. Eventually patients find out and trust is lost, possibly forever.  Withholding information is just another form of lying to patients.

After all the lying, the cover-ups, the conning, “trust us” just doesn’t work any more.
(a) Hundreds of hospital privacy violations go unreported – Olivia Carville, 13 Jan 2015,    The Star

(b) Ontario government under fire over inaction on health privacy law – Olivia Carville, 05 Mar 2015, Toronto Star

(c) Canada:  How Privacy Considerations Drive Patient Decisions and Impact Patient Care Outcomes – December 2011, New London Consulting

(d) Fines to double for breach of Ontario patients’ medical records – Keith Leslie, 10 June  2015, CTV News

(e) Medical privacy breaches rising – Roger Collier, 06 Mar, 2012. vol. 184 no.4, Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ)

OUR INFORMATION IS NOT PROTECTED – PART II

  1. THOUSANDS OF B.C. PRIVATE HEALTH RECORDS SOLD AT PUBLIC AUCTION. (a) Mike de Jong was involved in this one too. He was labour minister whose ministry oversaw the auction process.  Again, extremely private information was sold for $300 such as “medical status – including whether they have a mental illness, HIV or a substance-abuse problem”, social insurance numbers, date of births, names, phone numbers, and “caseworker entries divulging extremely intimate details of people’s lives”, and more.

Mary Carlson, director of the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of B.C. said “the government had sold sensitive information to the public once before, but that the details of the case had not been made public. She added that she is ‘disappointed’ to hear it has happened again”. (a)

  1. The Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) “lost the personal information of half-a-million Canadians last year.” They lost an unencrypted external hard drive containing Canada Student Loan information and a USB key containing information such as social insurance numbers, medical records, birth dates, education levels, occupations, etc.” (b)
  2. Ontario has had so many breaches that they held a press conference to apologize. They told people that most workers in the health system are honest people. That may be true in terms of downloading large amounts of information (lying/stealing/conning information from patients is another issue) but you don’t protect medical information from those who won’t steal it, you protect it from those who will steal it.  So, the government/medical system is responsible for not protecting the information.  Just like a bank doesn’t install a security system to protect its assets from the 90% who won’t steal but from the 10% that will steal.  A bank might get its money back but with medical information, once it’s out there, it’s out there, you don’t get it back.  Examples:                                                                                      i. An anti-abortion activist has been accused of prying “into hundreds of abortion records”. DeCiccio worked at a hospital and “the hospital placed no restrictions on what records she could or could not access”. (c)

“Since being informed of this case in May 2011, Beamish (acting privacy commissioner) said he has noticed a concerning trend where increasing numbers of hospital staff are accessing patient records without authorization, including the recent breach of former mayor Rob Ford’s medical files”. (c)

ii. “Hospital workers in Toronto have been disciplined, and some fired, for taking photos of patients without their consent, losing scores of health records or inappropriately prying into a patient’s file when they are not involved in their care.” (d)

“Earlier this year, the Star unveiled two major hospital privacy breach cases involving thousands of patients. In one case, hospitals inappropriately provided patient information to baby photographers. In another, hospitals were handing out patient contact information to private marketing companies.” (d)

iii. Six greater Toronto area hospitals apparently sold patient information to photographer(s).   And yet, Mount Sinai, one of the six, said “Since we learned of this breach (italics mine), we have changed our practice..”.  This implies they didn’t know what they were doing; they had a contract to sell this information but they didn’t know they were doing it; how does that happen? (e)

iv. Other examples you may want to read about: Rouge Valley hospital privacy breach expands to affect 14,450 patients, Joel Eastwood, 27 Aug 2014, Toronto Star; Hundreds of hospital privacy violations go unreported, Olivia Carville, 13 Jan 2015, Toronto Star; Ontario lags other provinces in updating health privacy laws, Olivia Carville, 06 Feb 2015, Toronto Star. A few of the examples you will read about in this articles: “pharmacist opening medical records of fellow congregants”; “a doctor who snooped into 141 women’s medical records, including gynecology reports” (h); “while standing in line for a pizza…doctor chatted on his cellphone about the private details of a patient” (I)

v. Another informative article: Peterborough lawsuit to set precedent for Ontario patient privacy rights, Joel Eastwood, 03 Sep 2014, Toronto Star. Update:  This lawsuit was dismissed because the prosecutors bungled the case (Ontario’s sole health privacy prosecution quietly dismissed,  Olivia Carville, 30 Mar 2015, Toronto Star).  How convenient.  But two more cases are on the go.
The worst that happens to the few privacy violators actually caught is they are fired. “Beamish (acting privacy commissioner in Ontario) is aware of only two provinces, Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador, which have successfully prosecuted under health-related privacy acts”. (c)  This indicates that the privacy acts are useless, a facade.  Quite frankly, I don’t think just being fired is much of a deterrent for severe cases of privacy violation (for example, when information is shared).  What happens to these fired people?; do they get rehired after a period of time (see post “BC Nurses”, Nov. 4, 2008), do they go to work in a nursing home or other facility (Ontario’s sole health privacy prosecution quietly dismissed,  Olivia Carville, 30 Mar 2015, Toronto Star)?; are they required to pay back any benefits from the privacy violation?

I think the ability to sue the hospitals is important in order to get them to take this issue seriously. Despite the fact that the medical system always say “we take the protection of people’s privacy very seriously”, obviously they don’t.  But, I believe, the prospect of being sued may encourage hospitals to coverup even more violations.  What is also required is some kind of oversight/ongoing audits conducted by citizens groups (or something similar), not chosen by, and outside the influence of, the political/medical organizations.

When I was in front of St. Paul’s, a couple years before the press conference, one person said he worked in a pharmacy in Ontario and that Ontario had tightened up its privacy and people in the pharmacy now had to get permission to access previously available information.  Apparently, it is VERY INCONVENIENT.  Isn’t that sad.  Protecting people’s privacy is INCONVENIENT for people in the medical business.  Accessing patient’s information SHOULD be difficult and if that’s inconvenient to researchers, etc. then find another line of work.  Yet, these recent scandals indicate that they are still doing a very poor job at privacy protection.

I commend the Toronto Star for its investigations and reports. If only other media, in other provinces, would do the same, it would prevent a lot of patient suffering in the future.

  1. “Personal health information belonging to 620,000 Albertans and stored unencrypted on a private company’s laptop was stolen” in Sept. 2013. “The data on the laptop included patients’ names, dates of birth, provincial health card numbers, billing codes, billing amounts and diagnostic codes.

Medicentres Family Health Care Clinics chief medical officer Dr. Arif Bhimji said “Medicentres “immediately” contacted the Edmonton Police Service and Office of the Information Privacy Commissioner”. Apparently, immediately was four days later.  But no one informed the Alberta Health (who eventually received a letter) or the patients (informed by the media) until January 2014.

The politicians were, of course, “outraged”. But isn’t it their job to ensure that our privacy is protected, even when they outsource?  But I guess it sounds good in the press.

Alberta Medical Association president Dr. Allan Garbutt said physicians are trained from early on to keep all medical information highly protected based on the principle that it belongs to the patient and no one else”(italics mine) .  He admitted that there are numerous ways medical information can be misused .  The  British Columbia medical business seems to operate on the principle that patient information belongs to everyone but the patient.  Does Alberta medical staff give anything but “lip service” to this principle?

As one patient said: ‘I don’t want my diagnosis given to just anyone. It’s up to me to disclose what is happening to me’.  In my opinion, this also applies to researchers.  As we know from researchers health scandal (prior post – Our Information Is Not Protected) the medical business and anonymous are total opposites.  Apparently the Medicentres laptop has never been recovered.

There have been more than “four other similar incidents that affected hundreds of thousands of people in the last decade” (that we know of). (g)  Most involved the theft/loss of laptops.

  1. “For a precedence on how bad privacy breaches in Canada can be, one need look no further than the case of Captain Sean Bruyea, a Canadian Air Force officer who served in the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Without his permission or knowledge, all of his personal, medical and financial files were distributed across a wide swath of officials in the Department of Veterans Affairs, who used this as ammunition to try to silence what was a fierce critic for Canada’s returning veterans. A total of 54 people had inappropriately accessed Bruyea’s file; 36 received an ‘administrative memo;’ nine were reprimanded and nine received one-day suspensions. Nobody was fired. No one. Let’s put this in context: When government employees were actually found to be egregiously breaking the law in accessing personalized files, not a single person was fired.”  Scandal taints BC Ministry of Health’s Pharmaceutical Services Division, Alan Cassels, April 2013, Common Ground
  2. I suggest you read Your Information Is Not Secure, Michael Geist, 01 May 2013, TheTyee.ca. This report reveals that “virtually every major [federal] government department has sustained [privacy] breaches and gives examples. It also states that the Privacy Commissioner of Canada is rarely notified of the breaches.
  3. A binder was stolen from a doctor’s car containing information on B.C. Transplant patients.  It included patient names and other information.  Patient Information Stolen,16 Dec 2011, 24 Hours
  4.  Other examples of the medical business’ hypocrisy regarding patient privacy:                                                                              i. When I had to go through the medical system (see future post “My Story”) I would stand at reception at the doctor’s office or office of other medical people and be asked to provide personal information while there were people directly behind and beside me, who could easily overhear everything being said. In some cases, I tried writing the information on a piece of paper or answering very softly and they would repeat what I said so loudly the whole waiting room, or most, could hear. At Burnaby General Hospital, in emergency, they have the reception desk right in front of the waiting room where everyone, or most, could overhear the conversation regarding the collection of personal information.                                                                                   ii. I was in a doctor’s very small reception/waiting room. The staff would talk to patients on the phone, sometimes even stating the patient’s name. People in the waiting room couldn’t help by overhear the conversation.                                             iii. I was in a pharmacy where they had a sign which said “stand back to respect people’s privacy”.  The pharmacy wasn’t that large so you would have to stand half way, or more, across the room, to avoid hearing the conversation.  The counter was also near the door so there was traffic coming & going.

But, hey, just ask them and they will tell you “your information is protected”. They don’t care about people’s privacy..  It’s inconvenient, to them.

 

THE ONLY SAFE INFORMATION IS THAT WHICH ISN’T GIVEN

 

 

  1. THOUSANDS OF B.C. PRIVATE HEALTH RECORDS SOLD AT PUBLIC AUCTION –  Jonathan Fowlie, 04 Mar 2006, Vancouver Sun (a paper I didn’t buy)
  2. Human Resources bureaucrats questioned over data breach – Jessica Murphy, 15 Feb 2013, 24 Hours
  3. Anti-abortion activist snooped into 414 abortion files – Olivia Carville, 21 Jan 2015, Toronto Star
  4. Hospital privacy violations rife in Ontario – Olivia Carville, 29 Oct 2014, Toronto Star
  5. Privacy breach: Six GTA hospitals gave patient info to photographers – Joel Eastwood, 29 Aug 2014, Toronto Star
  6. Laptop with 620,000 Albertans’ personal health information stolen – Robson Fletcher, 22 Jan 2014, Metro News
  7. 4 other cases of stolen health data in Alberta – 22 Jan 2014, CBC News
  8. Ontario lags other provinces in updating health privacy laws – Olivia Carville, 06 Feb 2015,  Toronto Star.
  9. Hundreds of hospital privacy violations go unreported – Olivia Carville, 13 Jan 2015, Toronto Star

 

SOME PARTICIPANTS IN HEALTH MINISTRY FIRINGS

– Alana James – a lawyer who worked as a senior health information advisor; whistleblower who no longer works for the ministry (g)

– John Doyle – auditor general (p)

Alana and John – I have the utmost respect and admiration for both of you.

Premiers (n) The big turdits, ultimately responsible for ensuring that our information was protected and none of them followed the law, i.e. FIPPA (in effect since 1993) or The Privacy Act .  Isn’t this, at best, a dereliction of duty?

– Christy Clark (Liberal) – 14 Mar 2011
– Gordon Campbell (Liberal) – 5 Jun 2001 to 14 Mar 2011                                                                                                 – Ujjal Dosanjh (NDP) – 24 Feb 2000 to 5 June 2001
– Dan Miller (NDP) – 25 Aug 1999 to 24 Feb 2000
– Glen Clark (NDP) – 22 Feb 1996 to 25 Aug 1999
– Mike Harcourt (NDP) – 5 Nov 1991 to 22 Feb 1996

Health Ministers  (o) (next in line regarding ultimate responsibility):

– Terry Lake – 10 Jun 2013 – current health minister

– Margaret MacDiarmid – 05 Sept 2012 to June 2013 – then health minister – *

– Mike de Jong – 14 Mar 2011 to 05 Sep 2012 – health minister when two of the known “leaks” occurred and the “investigation” began – *

– Colin Hansen – 30 Nov 2010 to 14 Mar 2011 – *

– Kevin Falcon – 10 Jun 2009 to 30 Nov 2010

– George Abbott – 16 Jun 2005 to 10 Jun 2009 – *

– Shirley Bond – 15 Dec 2004 to 16 Jun 2005

– Colin Hansen – 05 Jun 2001 to 15 Dec 2004 – *

– Corky Evans – 01 Nov 2000 to 05 June 2001

– Mike Farnworth – 29 Feb 2000 to 01 Nov 2000

– Penny Priddy – 18 Feb 1998 to 24 Feb 2000

– Joy MacPhail – 17 Jun 1996 to 18 Feb 1998

– Andrew Petter – 28 Feb 1996 to 17 June 1996

– Paul Ramsey – Sept 1993 to Feb 1996

Also, there are deputy ministers, associate deputy ministers and assistant deputy ministers and the opposition health critics but no one did, or said, anything. This wasn’t a small error, a slip up, this was/is huge, this was/is intentional.  Did it make it easier to share our information with all their despicable friends and party donors, for example the pharmaceutical companies??

Opposition party leaders and heath critics, such as Adrian Dix, also had a responsibility to speak up but they didn’t. And I don’t believe that they didn’t know that the health ministry was massively violating people’s privacy and the law.  And as John Doyle said, this issue goes beyond the health ministry (see post “Our Information Is Not Protected – Part I”).

Some of these people will leave office and try to redeem themselves. But we know who they are and, at least some, of what they have done.  It’s like Tony Blair and Condaleeza Rice who are responsible for hundreds of thousands, or is it millions, of injuries and deaths of innocent people during the Iraq war (some consider them mass murderers), but after they leave office they go on a “peace” mission to redeem their reputation.  Like other politicians, they can’t.  They are what they are and they did what they did and nothing will change that.  Their stench will continue to emanate from them forever.

OTHERS INVOLVED

– Graham Whitmarsh – “deputy minister at the time of the firings and later fired by the government” (c) ( lost his job as part of a post-election “shuffle” of cabinet ministers and deputies); “was one of the people who signed off while working in the finance ministry last year on forgiving David Basi and Bob Virk’s $6 million legal fees after they pleaded guilty to charges in the BC Rail corruption case.”(h)                                                                                            – John Dyble – was deputy minister of health services, now deputy minister to the premier (g)       – Stephen Brown – assistant deputy minister until April 2011, then to Ministry of Children and Family Development (p), now deputy minister for health (c)                         – Elaine McKnight – “associate deputy minister in health supervised the people who conducted the early stages of the investigation” (c) and current head of the public service agency (replaced Tarras)(g)                                                                          – Health Ministry assistant deputy ministers Lindsay Kislock, Manjit Sidhu and Barbara Walman, were put in charge of the investigation (f), and the public version of the report had their names redacted from the terms of reference for the 2012 review that eventually led to the firings, included in McNeil’s report as Appendix C.  (j) Manjit Sidu was also direct supervisor to Alana James (see his comments to her concerns).f)
– Bob Nakagawa “left his position as assistant deputy minister in charge of the pharmaceutical services division in April 2012” (h)                                                                                           – John Bethel – “a former BC Liberal candidate and member of Premier Clark’s transition” team replaced Bob Kakagawa (h)
– Linda Tarras – head of PSA and retired at the end of October 2014 and wrote the terms of reference for the review (i)
– Rebecca Warburton – co-director of research and evidence development in the ministry’s pharmaceutical services division and Roderick MacIssac’s thesis supervisor (h)
– Bill Warburton – has a PhD in economics and worked as the director of the economic analysis branch for the former ministry of human resources, had a $1 a year contract that gave him access to drug data (h), a health economist who had just been hired by the University of Victoria to oversee an Alzheimer’s disease drug research project, (29)
– Roderick MacIsaac – a PhD student in the University of Victoria’s school of public administration, on a co-op work term, Rebecca Warburton was his advisor.  Mr. MacIsaac committed suicide. (l)    – Bob Hart – the director of data access, research and stewardship (k), with the ministry for 30 years(h)                                                 – Ramsay Hamdi, a senior economist in the utilization health care and risk management branch (14)
– David Scott – a senior researcher in the analysis branch (h)
– Malcolm Maclure – a director of research and evidence development with the ministry’s pharmaceutical services division (30) and had appointments to Uvic and the University of BC (14)
– Ron Mattson – a special projects manager with PharmaCare, was involved in the Alzheimer’s Drug Therapy Initiative (14), an employee for 27 years (h); a View Royal city councillor(m)
– Sara Brownlee – led the team that undertook the investigation and member of staff of PSA (c)
-Investigator from the chief information officer’s office. “Sara and Wendy were, to my knowledge, the only individuals who attended every meeting and employee interview.” [Graham Whitmarsh].  The pair was key, he said. “They collected all evidence and wrote all reports with respect to the entire investigation process. In addition, they drafted all the letters advising employees of disciplinary actions.” (c)
– Dale Samsonoff – advanced education executive director (d)                                                      – Ted Boomer – director of the Ministry’s Accounting Operations Branch  (b)                                    – Grace Foran – health director of executive operations (d)              – Greg Tonn and Don Rintoul (d)                                                     – Ryan Jabs – Ministry spokesperson (f)                                         – Laine Coopsie – senior audit advisor in the health ministry (f)      – Jay Chalke – Ombudsperson                                                           – Linda Kayfish – she’s wasn’t a participant – sister of Roderick MacIssac, an outsider, she’s fighting for his rights

Other Names You May Find Interesting (e):

Provincial Health Services Authority

Board Chair: Wynne Powell
President and Chief Executive Officer: Carl Roy

Fraser Health

Board Chair: Wynne Powell
A/President and Chief Executive Officer: Dr. David Ostrow                                                                                               Dr. David Ostrow – was CEO of Vancouver Coastal Health Authority (VCHA) – see post “Auditor General’s report” – now a/president and CEO of Fraser Health Authority (things never change, just moved around) (see post “AUDITOR GENERAL – PARIS REPORT, May 24, 2010 and post  “AUDITOR GENERAL, June 10, 2011)

Interior Health

Board Chair: Norman Embree
President and Chief Executive Officer: Dr. Robert Halpenny

Northern Health

Board Chair: Dr. Charles Jago
President and Chief Executive Officer: Cathy Ulrich

Vancouver Coastal Health

Board Chair: Kip Woodward
President and Chief Executive Officer: Mary Ackenhusen

Island Health

Board Chair: Don Hubbard
President and Chief Executive Officer: Dr. Brendan Carr

 

Geoff Plant, former BC Liberal attorney general, now chair of Providence’s board of directors (and round and round they go)

How much did we pay these “people” to lie and/or know NOTHING:

* Margaret MacDermid said “It’s not clear at all to me and I don’t believe it’s clear to anyone as to why this happened.” (s)

(t) – Mike de Jong said about the situation: “”it’s disappointing, it’s troubling.” “One of the things I as health minister had endeavoured to promote is responsible access to the treasure trove of data we hold as a society with a PharmaCare program”;

(g) – Colin Hansen said, in March of 2012, “They’re being overly cautious, let’s put it that way. And the result of that is that the process is way too time-consuming and frustrating for those responsible researchers who want to get access.” and “sufficient safeguards are already in place to assure both the anonymity of records and to ensure they will only be released to responsible researchers”.

(r) – George Abbott said, regarding the firings, “I have no idea how something like that came to be,”

Margaret MacDiarmid and Terry Lake lied repeatedly about the non-existent RCMP investigation (see post “Our Information Is Not Protected – Part I)

 

 

  1. Fired health ministry employee ‘mystified’ by dismissal – Andrew MacLeod, 12 Sep 2012, The Hook
  2. The best place on Earth (for pharmaceutical companies) – Alan Cassels, Mar 2013, Online
  3. What We Know So Far about the Health Ministry Firings – Andrew MacLeod, 19 Dec 2014, TheTyee.ca
  4. BC Gov’t Hiding ‘Embarrassing’ Reports, FOI Advocate Says – Andrew MacLeod, 26 Jan 2015, TheTyee.ca
  5. British Columbia Health Authorities Webpage – 17 Mar 2015
  6. Emails Shed Light on Origins of Health Ministry Probe, Firings – Andrew MacLeod, 21 Oct 2014, TheTyee.ca            **
  7. Key Health Ministry Advisor Was Surprised Firings Targeted Just ‘Low Level People’: Emails – Andrew MacLeod, 6 Nov 2014, TheTyee.ca **
  8. ‘I Thought I Was Doing a Good Job’: Fired Health Ministry Staffer, Andrew MacLeod, 12 Sept 2012, TheTyee.ca
  9. Sister of Fired Researcher Losing Faith in Government Probe – Andrew MacLeod, 5 Dec 2014, TheTyee.ca
  10. Fork over Full Health Firings Findings: Dix – Andrew MacLeod, 8 Jan 2015, TheTyee.ca
  11. BC Gov’t Faces Third Lawsuit over Health Ministry Firings – Andrew MacLeod, 12 Mar 2013, TheTyee.ca
  12. Fired Health Ministry Worker Found Dead – Andrew MacLeod, 10 Jan 2013, TheTyee.ca
  13. Research Stopped by Ministry Might Have Cut Big Pharma Profits – Andrew MacLeod, 8 Sept 2012, TheTyee.ca
  14. Premiers of British Columbia 1871 – today, British Columbia government website
  15. How many health ministers does it take to run B.C.’s medical system…? – Pamela Fayerman, 14 Mar 2011, Vancouver Sun (a paper I never buy)
  16. Independent inquiry urged into botched health ministry firings – Rob Show, 2 Jul    2015, Vancouver Sun
  17. Bill easing research access to ehealth data sparks privacy fears – Craig McInnes, 03 May 2012, Vancouver Sun
  18. George Abbott Quits Liberals He Sought to Lead – Andrew MacLeod, 30 Jun 2015, TheTyee.ca
  19. B.C. Health ministry says RCMP called to investigate conflict allegations – Dirk Meissner, 06 Nov 2012, The Canadian Press
  20. Health ministry fires fifth person in data, contract investigation – Andrew MacLeod, 13 Sep 2012, The Hook

**Alana James comments

OUR INFORMATION IS NOT PROTECTED – PART I

If you can’t protect it, don’t collect it.

Personal health information is one of the most sensitive categories of personal information held by public bodies. (11)

Personal health information is much more than ‘just data’ – it is sensitive information provided confidentially in the context of care. (11)

The politicians and all their friends keep lying about protecting our information. For example:

  1. The BC Ministry of Health was tipped, in March of 2012*, by the office of the BC Auditor General that it had “received an anonymous allegation about contracting irregularities and research practices, including inappropriate access to personal information” at the Pharmaceutical Services Division. (11) Another ministry division was also involved.(11)

The Health Ministry fired seven people and froze several drug research contracts. (42)

The B.C. Privacy Commissioner conducted an investigation after the Ministry of Health revealed, on July 13, 2012, that “government employees downloaded large amounts of personal health data onto unencrypted flash drives and provided it to unauthorized individuals”.   And this wasn’t one loss.  First it was unauthorized sharing of 21,000 people.  Then it was 38,000 people.  Then it was “the data of five million** British Columbia’s covering a number of years.”  According to Wikipedia, the population of BC in 2011 was 4,400,057.  In other words, everyone’s information was shared NON-anonymously, including those who had moved out of province.  It included “sexual history, Medical Service Plan claims, hospital admission records, healthcare numbers, dates of birth and gender.” (1, 6) plus “alcohol and drug use, … postal codes” (2).  Enough information to identify the patients.

“One incident breached an agreement with Statistics Canada involving 38,000 people whose information in the Canadian Community Health Survey was collected from census data between 2000 and 2010, said a Health Ministry spokesman.” “Individuals participated in that survey and shared their most sensitive information such as sexual health and sexual preferences on the basis that that information would not be shared,” she said. (2)

“There was an agreement and a consent to have that information used only for specific purposes within the Ministry of Health. When that information was disclosed that was really a breach of an agreement and it goes to the issue of trust that individuals have in the health-care system.” (2) Statistics Canada had promised individuals who completed the survey that the Ministry would not disclose any of their information in personally identifiable form. (11)  Again, the government just lies.  They either didn’t check the Ministry of Health to determine if there was adequate security or they didn’t care.  Statistics Canada was apparently content with a worthless agreement, and, it seems, has taken no action on the violation of the agreement.

Margaret MacDiarmid said that “It appeared researchers were getting data for one purpose, then using it for another research purpose”. (14) 0`

“The purported recipients of the information were two contractors and a researcher” (11) and involved the University of Victoria, University of BC and the Therapeutics Initiative.

BC’s Privacy Commissioner made 11 recommendations (Note: the privacy commissioner can only recommend, not enforce).  You can read the report at www.oipc.bc.ca , Investigation Report F13-02, dated June 16, 2013.  “The report does not address criminal or civil culpability on the part of the Ministry, its employees or contractors. “

Some points from the report (35 pages, some of it repetitive):

– The Privacy Commissioner stated the Ministry didn’t even have “adequate safeguards to protect personal information, both in the delivery of health care and research using health data.” (11) (bolding/italics mine)

– The ministry failed to translate privacy and security policies into meaningful business practices. The primary deficiency at the ministry was a lack of effective governance, management and controls over access to personal health information. (11)  In other words, the policies, the protection of our information, were just words on paper.

– The information was shared via portable storage devices (easily lost/stolen/copied/given away).

– “The ministry didn’t have an inventory of its personal-information databases or a program to monitor any unauthorized use and disclosure of citizens’ information by contracted and academic researchers”. (3) So, people could steal this information and sell/trade/barter it without risk of being caught, unless a whistleblower comes forward, and maybe not even then.                                                                                                  – “There were no mechanisms to ensure that researchers were complying with the privacy requirements, as stipulated in contracts and written agreements”. (11)  Again, the contracts/agreements were just worthless words on paper.                                                 – There were insufficient physical and technological safeguards to prevent copying of sensitive personal information onto portable storage devices. The Ministry failed to monitor the access, use and disclosure of sensitive personal information. It also failed to impose effective security provisions in some of its contracts and information sharing agreements. Given the level of sensitivity of the personal information involved, the Ministry did not provide reasonable security. (11)

Terry Lake, Minister of Health as of June 10, 2013, blamed the employee’s for the lack of “mechanisms to ensure that researchers were complying with the privacy requirements”. (48) Isn’t that the Minister’s job to ensure “mechanism’s” are in place for the proper running of a ministry?  Plus, this went beyond researchers; the Ministry didn’t have adequate safeguards even for the delivery of health care.  But this is typical politician behaviour to blame someone else for the politicians obvious incompetence or chosen behaviour.

In a report, dated February 9, 2009, The Acting Information and Privacy Commissioner, Paul Fraser, “found MCFD and MHSD failed to make reasonable security arrangements to protect personal information from risks such as unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure or disposal as required by the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA). In addition, ‘Commissioner Fraser found a troubling lack of knowledge within the Ministries about the rules respecting the protection of personal information’”. (prior post, Privacy Breaches, 11 Jun 2011)

And again, a report was released in 2010 by then Auditor General John Doyle who had conducted an audit of a Vancouver Coastal Health Authority database   He found almost identical “problems”.  (prior post “Auditor General – PARIS report” 24 May 2010)           So, nothing changes.

It sounds like the Ministry of Health has been running a free-for-all. They only knew about this “breach” from a whistleblower (so they say).  There is a minister of health, a deputy minister, assistant deputy ministers, associate deputy minister… – and no one knows what’s going on (or more likely they do and chose to have it this way).  And there is no doubt this “breach” is the tip of the iceberg, since this lack of privacy protection has been going on for 20+ years. (49)

The term “breach”, has a couple of definitions. One definition is “to make an opening in” (as in a security system)  But I think you first have to have a security system to “breach”.  The second definition is to “break or act contrary to (a law, a promise)”. (Wikipedia)  This post uses the second definition of breach.  Christy Clark and other BC premiers and their lackeys, breached or contravened the privacy act, for 20+ years, by, for all intents and purposes, not having a security system and broke a promise to the people to protect their information.  The fired contractors/employees were believed to have committed a breach by accessing/sharing patient information without authorization (illegally?).

So what really happened?   CBC News has provided a timeline of the events but we still don’t know what really happened. (55)  I do know that there are only two people I trust who were involved in this whole disgraceful affair, Alana James (whistleblower) and John Doyle (former auditor general)(more information on John Doyle***). Unlike the researchers, these two came forward when the only thing they had to gain was maintaining their self-respect and integrity.  And they risked losing their jobs, which they did.

But some points to consider are (note the many contradictions and outright lies in this scandalous fiasco): (40)

– The ministry did not discover the unauthorized disclosures until a whistleblower came forward, leading to a review of thousands of emails and files on the hard drives of several employees. (11) The whistleblower, Alana James, is no longer working for the government either by choice (disgusted with the way things operate?) or “let go” (government doesn’t want someone who works for the people?)

– Alana James “had been raising concerns about the legality of numerous contracts the ministry had entered” “for several years before the firings“. (25) She had contacted eight senior ministry officials about her concerns  and “they were saying policy trumped the law and government could do what it wants even if it breaches the law and legislation”.   Alana James also identifies quite a lot of concerns that the Ministry of Health did not address in their investigation. (17)

– Two of the employees settled wrongful dismissal and defamation suits out of court and were rehired (Bob Hart and Malcolm Maclure), a third employee (Ron Mattson) received an out of court settlement and an apology and retired. These settlements were done behind closed doors and with a non-disclosure clause.  Bill Warburton has settled his lawsuit with the province but has filed a defamation claim against Margaret MacDermid. (43, 9, 44)   Dave Scott and Ramsay Hamdi remain fired.  Roderick MacIssac committed suicide. (12,18, 45, 46).  Rebecca Warburton has her case before the courts. Why were the non-union employees rehired/retired (except Rebecca Warburton) but the two union people were not rehired and yet not charged with an offence/crime? (13)  A source claims the non-union employees threatened to tell what is really going on. (23)   Is there something that prevents union employees from doing the same thing?

– The firings were done by Graham Whitmarsh, deputy health minister “on the first day that Margaret MacDiarmid was health minister”. (12) She replaced Mike de Jong who was moved to the Finance Ministry.(20)   What interesting timing!  Did Christy think he was too much of a political asset to take responsibility for his actions (or lack of actions)?  The breaches happened on his watch, the initial investigation which led to the suspension, and later firing of seven employees occurred on his watch and the lack of overall privacy protection continued on his watch.  Now, it appears, he ran and hid in another ministry.  Isn’t that called being a coward?  And, he can claim that he “can’t comment” on what is going on in another ministry and MacDiarmid can claim that she was not minister at the time it happened so she can’t answer what happened.

– Mike de Jong said about the situation: “”it’s disappointing, it’s troubling.” “One of the things I as health minister had endeavoured to promote is responsible access to the treasure trove of data we hold as a society with a PharmaCare program”; (20) “It’s not clear at all to me and I don’t believe it’s clear to anyone as to why this happened,” said MacDiarmid.(5) Now that they have had time to read the privacy commissioner’s report perhaps the ministers could explain what they do to earn their large pay-cheques, expense accounts and golden pensions.  Imagine if a bank was robbed and an executive said “I didn’t know there wasn’t any security” or “we had no security because we expected everyone to be honest.” How long would that executive be employed?  So, are they incredibly incompetent, liars or both?

– We have paid for an internal investigation, RCMP responding to claims of an investigation (a non-existent investigation), a privacy commissioner investigation, a University of BC investigation, and possibly a University of Victoria investigation, settlements to fired employees, a pending court case, 37,000 notifications of the breach, $1.1 million (or $950 per phone call) to Maximus for a toll-free call centre, $400,000 in severance payments to Graham Whitmarsh (18) and on and on. “It is worth noting the high costs of such after-the-fact privacy breach management as opposed to investing in comprehensive privacy and security risk management up front. Senior management time is an especially high component of this burden.” (11) I think the management should have worked for free, then been fired.   But no management has been held responsible for the “breach”, for the lack of privacy protection and there has been no accountability.  Whitmarsh was fired, without cause, with a $461,643 severance package. (55)  The citizens, will just work a little harder, work a little longer, or do without to pay for the useless, incompetent, self-serving politicians and their toadies.

– “The Ministry believed the research credentials of the individuals involved suggested that there was little risk for misuse” of patient information. (11)  How convenient.  Excuse me but aren’t these the people who, “without authorization” (illegally?) requested, shared and accepted confidential patient information!!!

– Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid said “We want the data back” (1). How stupid can you be (but I guess it sounds good in the press).  You don’t get it back especially after several years. Once it’s out there, it’s out there. “In attempting to contain the breaches, the Ministry had to rely on declarations from the employees and contracted researchers under investigation that they did not have any Ministry information stored outside the confines of the Ministry.”(11)  In other words, the Ministry is, again, relying on the word of people who had “without authorization” (illegally?) given and accepted identifiable patient information.  One person said they had deleted the information from their hard drive.  But, my understanding is that if information is transferred onto your computer and then deleted, it is not totally gone, unless the hard drive is wiped clean.  I doubt very much if that was done.  Also, these systems usually have at least one backup.  This shows, again, that the ministry has no idea (or doesn’t care) how our information is accessed or shared.

– “Jim Wright, the managing director of the University of B.C. pharmaceutical research group” said people working with him “only get fully anonymous data, making a privacy breach impossible”.(33) The Privacy Commissioner’s report said a contractor (doesn’t mention which university) “requested that the personal health numbers (PHNs) be masked or removed, as the testing process did not need such sensitive personal information.” (11).  This seems to imply that the norm is to give the information NON-anonymously.

– The press keeps repeating, or paraphrasing, the MacDiarmid statement that “there was no evidence that anyone had benefited financially from the breaches and that the data had been used for nothing other than public health research”.(36) This is misleading at best. What isn’t being said is that there was no evidence that anyone hadn’t benefited financially or that data had not been used for purposes other than public health research.  The government was so mismanaged (intentionally or just incompetently) that they had no record of what was happening to our information.  They only became aware of two cases of “unauthorized” (illegal?) access/sharing (or so they say) because the employee’s accessed and shared the information after they were told that they were being investigated. (11, 30)  Presumably, they found out about the 2010 “unauthorized” access/sharing by stumbling across some emails.

And, do you really believe that in 20+ years no one personally benefited from sharing our information, especially when there was virtually no chance of getting caught. Just think of all the people/organizations who would willingly pay a lot of money for this “treasure trove” of information.  Example, “records were allegedly stolen from two Toronto hospitals and used to market registered education savings plans to new mothers.” (34)  Just because a criminal has not been caught or convicted (see prior post “Nurses”,  Nov. 12, 2008) does not mean a crime has not happened.

– “The Ministry convened a news conference on January 14, 2013, to inform the public of details of the breaches (three months after the September 2012 announcement, and 10 months after being notified of the breach, or so they say). It mailed letters of notification to affected individuals (approximately 37,000) in batches over five days starting on January 16, 2013. The Ministry made use of a website and a toll-free call centre to make additional information available to affected individuals”. (11) A lot of people would not have known about the unauthorized access/sharing, especially if they had left the province.  But presumably the turdits didn’t want to mail out over 4 to 5 million notifications.  And how much personal information was a person required to give the foreign-owned call centre, and their probably low-paid employee’s, to get scripted answers?

I also find it interesting that the media labels this as a ministry firing scandal and not as a ministry privacy violation scandal (of epic proportions). Is this because it’s so shocking that someone would get fired for violating our privacy but the massive violation of our privacy is so common or is this to deflect attention away from the 20+ years of privacy violation?

Dix, and others, including the media, have also portrayed this as the government making up a fictitious situation to close down the Therapeutics Initiative. He implies that the people involved are innocent. Therefore, he is implying that Alana James is lying, that the Privacy Commissioner is lying, that information was not transferred “without authorization” (illegally?), and that the union was incompetent because they couldn’t protect innocent union members.  Maybe this is a distraction, a red herring because he can’t condemn the essentially non-existent protection of our information because both the NDP and Liberal governments have allowed the medical business to ignore FIPPA, to lie about the protection of patient information for 20+ years.  Although I do wonder if having an essentially non-existent security system makes it easier to get information to their friends (party contributors).  Is this how they get the large pharmaceutical companies to locate in BC?  (21)  I’ve read that the collusion between government and Big Pharma borders on criminal.

Do these comments sound like we were dealing with innocent people? Does it sound like these people have any remorse for what they did/are doing?  Alana James said that the ministry was making data disclosures, which were illegal, to outside researchers every week. (17)  And, “I have been told things such as: I don’t understand how government works; that it doesn’t matter what the legislation says, we have government policy; that it’s unfortunate that we don’t follow the law but that we plan on changing the legislation at some point so that we will.”(28)  “Moreover, they’d been doing the job the same way for years with the approval of their superiors. ‘There was a whole chain of command that knew what I was doing,’” one of the people fired said. (14)  Dix said the government ”targeted a small group of people who were acting in ways that were well known and accepted in the ministry”. (25)  But that doesn’t make it legal or acceptable. If you hit a person because you were told to, does that make you any less guilty of assault?  I believe that just makes you both guilty.  It’s just a question of exactly WHO is guilty.  And it also indicates the complete contempt the politicians and their toadies have for the law. (41)

Also, it’s possible that Dix’s is just trying to brainwash people into believing that the medical/research system is trustworthy so people will be gullible enough to continue to give personal information to be sold/traded/bartered to all their political friends.

Dix’s is calling for an investigation, which should happen, but it’s a safe demand because, with a Liberal majority, it won’t happen.

It appears that the only investigation into what happened was a review by the health ministry in 2014. However, this review was only focused on policies and procedures on how the public service responds to allegations of employee misconduct, not on the actual decisions themselves, not on who fired whom and for what reason, or who wrote deficient contracts. (18) And they certainly did not investigate why the Ministry of Health didn’t even have “adequate safeguards to protect personal information.  The government stated that the 2014 review will not be put on the internet for privacy reasons (seems they have a sense of humour). (8)   Stephen Brown, deputy health minister, was suppose to have conducted a review, in 2013, that led to the rehiring of some fired employees.  However, an FOI request received a “no records” of the review response. (24)  And, what happened to the information on the initial investigation, in 2012, that led to the firings and all the files that were suppose to be turned over to the RCMP. (5)

“British Columbia’s Health Minister has called in the RCMP”, “last month, after reviewing the internal probe results, the ministry handed its files over to the Mounties.” (5) MacDiarmid was health minister at the time.   In 2013 Lake, health minister, said they continue to share information with the RCMP… ”So it will be up to the RCMP to determine next steps based on their conclusions from the investigation.” (7)   RCMP had been asked to investigate allegations (22, 3, 31).  A source told the Tyee “They seemed to make the decision about the fired people and told the whistleblower that if they wouldn’t take the issues public they would deal with it internally but that their role was to protect the government as the employer and thus they wouldn’t be pursuing people higher up.” (23)   The government then said that it doesn’t want the RCMP to investigate. (36).  Also, did you note that “their role was to protect the government as the employer”.  Isn’t it time that the people got back to being the employer so the people are protected?  The RCMP have stated that the politicians lied, that there was no investigation and they “largely relied upon media reports to track the case”. (38)  Then, Christy Clark admitted that they had “misled” (blatantly lied to) the public about the non-existent investigation for three years, but only admitted it after the Vancouver Sun released documents, obtained through a freedom of information request, incriminating the politicians. (47).  If you or I lied and used the RCMP, wouldn’t we be charged, at least with mischief or some such thing.  So why aren’t the politicians charged?  And why did the politicians lie about an RCMP investigation?

“The Vancouver Sun’s Vaughn Palmer revealed that the comptroller general’s office has been conducting an investigation into ‘suspected financial improprieties in procurement and contracting procedures in the pharmaceutical research division of the ministry of health,’ since October 2012. (3) The findings are to be kept confidential except to ‘assist RCMP or other law enforcement agency with a criminal investigation or prosecution.’”(28).  It appears that this “investigation” is going in the same direction as the health privacy breach/firings. (39)

“What we’re trying to do is capitalize on data collection that is anonymous,” said Minister de Jong. “Protecting individual privacy remains a hallmark and a fundamental priority.” (15) The Privacy Commissioner’s office obviously disagrees, as does all the evidence. And Ministry of Health claims they didn’t have the resources for protection. (11)  But everyone in the health business says our information is protected.  All these conflicting statements (lies).  And note that they had the money for the Integrated Management System (see post of same title, June 14, 2011).  So they had the money to link all our information but none to protect it.  Sounds about right for the turdits.

The privacy commissioner has 11 recommendations. Do you really think they will be implemented?  Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA), which governs public bodies, came into effect October 1993.  So, it’s been 20+ years since this privacy act came into effect and obviously they have ignored it so far.                                                                                                                                                                      The privacy commissioner also claims that the Health Ministry is “fixing” things.  But, of course, she only has their word, which hasn’t been worth a damn for 20+ years.  They quickly came up with millions to “contain” the “unauthorized” (illegal?) access/sharing.  And, suddenly, there was no problem coming up with the money to “fix the system” now that they had been “found out”, or so they said.  PROVE IT.

The government has looked into joint medical research with India (32) and has held workshops to encourage “BC researchers to compete for contracts from the United States military”(35) and were in discussions to sell (openly/legally) our information (36); that was “officially” suspended, but for how long. So all the people in foreign countries will have our information, if they don’t already have it.  And it will be identifiable because we know the government/medical business make a mockery of the word “anonymous”.

And they passed Bill 35 which is pharmaceutical legislation to increase use of patient information with reduced accountability, including sharing our information outside of Canada. (15, 37) (also see post “Bill 35 – Pharmaceutical Act” 25 Sept. 2012).

Now the turdits are going to do another “investigation” to quiet all the questions around this sordid affair. BUT it will be done by the Ombudsperson, Jay Chalke, who isn’t qualified to do it and is subject to many restrictions.  Also, it will be done behind closed doors. (50)(51) They claim that it would be too expensive and time consuming to have a public inquiry.  Which is more expensive:  a useless investigation by the Ombudsperson, designed to be a whitewash, or a REAL public inquiry, designed to get answers.

The fired people, plus Roderick MacIssac’s sister, have issued a letter requesting a public inquiry. I find this more than a “bit” hypocritical coming from those (not MacIssac’s sister), who had an opportunity to get this into the open by going to court but instead settled behind closed doors, with a non-disclosure clause.  Are some of them doing a “Dix” (including Graham Whitmarsh), demanding a public inquiry, because it makes them look good, when they know it will never happen?  However, the points they outline in their letter regarding why there needs to be a public inquiry are valid. (42, 53)

But, even with a public inquiry you need people with some ethics, integrity and moral fibre, to tell the truth and not just lie, or a damn good lawyer who can get to the truth.

More importantly, B.C.’s former auditor general says the government needs a fully independent public inquiry into the firings of health researchers because allegations of improper activities go all the way up to the politicians.

“John Doyle, who received the whistle-blower’s original complaints that led to the government’s investigation in 2012, said appointing the Ombudsman to review the case would be a ‘waste of time’ because it would too limited to capture the full scope of potential problems.

‘My view is that this isn’t just about a few people in the health department,” he told The Vancouver Sun in an interview Thursday.

‘The information that we were getting covered a lot of government and a lot of behaviour right up to the political levels.  Some of the issues also involved the Ministry of Justice, said Doyle, where Jay Chalke worked as a senior official for the past four years, before starting as Ombudsman Thursday.  The government is poised to appoint Chalke’s office to look into the matter. He shouldn’t be involved, said Doyle.  ‘If they are going to narrow the inquiry right down to looking at the firings, then it doesn’t matter who does it because it’s a waste of time anyway,’ said Doyle.  They’ve done that to death already. It’s really about the patterns of behaviour, the movement of funds, the decision making that was going on in regard to quite a range of different activities, and the interaction with senior politicians .”’ (49)

Doyle suggested a corruption commission model used in Australia, where he is now the auditor general for the State of Victoria. “I believe the agenda is going to be swung towards the seven or eight people who were fired. And really that’s a smokescreen. Some of them were right in the middle of it but some of them were in the periphery. The big things occurring outside the health ministry were some more senior people and a lot of, as I said, politicians involved in the process as well .“ (49)

An Aside: John Doyle and Alana James married and are living in Australia.  I am happy that two such people with ethics, decency, integrity, and bravery got together.  Congratulations to Australia for getting our best.  And BC gets left with the scrapings of humanity.

In addition, David Ostrow violated the privacy act (see post Auditor General – PARIS report, May 24, 2010), de Jong was in charge when the recent health violations occurred and the health ministry violated the privacy act, Margaret MacDiarmid lied about the RCMP (and gawd knows what else) and Terry Lake continued the lie(s), and these people still work in the government. In fact, MacDiarmid was fired by the people when she was voted out of government in the last election but Christy flipped the citizens the finger and gave her a job on the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority board.  That tells me that all of this is run from the top of the dung pile.  Whatever Christy is hiding, about what she/they are doing to us, must be pretty damning.  WHAT ARE THEY DOING TO US!!!

Plus, “The deputy minister of health sent an email yesterday to all staff in the ministry asking them not to delete or destroy any records related to the 2012 firings that the provincial ombudsperson is investigating”, at the request of the ombudsman. “Health policy researcher and author Alan Cassels said that it’s odd that Brown would be reminding people to keep records three years after the firings were made. ‘The horse hasn’t just escaped from the barn, the barn’s burned down,’ he said.  Despite numerous requests to the government since 2012 for information about the firings, little that’s substantial has been released, Cassels said. ‘To be told there aren’t any records, it stretches credibility to the breaking point. You just can’t believe them.'” (52)

If the NDP were to get “in power”, do you really think they would have a full public inquiry of the scandal? I don’t.  They would cover for their compatriots as they would expect their compatriots to cover for them, not to mention that the NDP are likely just as guilty.

The reality is that the only people who can call a public inquiry and get the truth out in the
open are the accused (the politicians and their lackeys), and obviously they are not going to
do it.  We have no means to hold the government accountable — do you call that a democracy?

So, sit back folks in BC and start counting the millions more that will be wasted in the charade, all to cover up what the politicians are doing to the people. I have no doubt that the politicians, and many others, know exactly what happened and why.  But, the people can just work harder, or work longer to make up the millions, or do without.  The people doing without will be the children, the homeless, the disabled, the aged …. but the politicians don’t care.

Lies, lies, more lies, constant contradictions and cover-ups. It isn’t just a case of breaching security measures, it’s a case of not having security measures.  It’s a case of intentionally violating the privacy laws for 20+ years. Common sense indicates that the “unauthorized” (illegal?) access/sharing we hear about are just a tiny fraction of the violations of our privacy.

It’s a culture of secrecy, of lies, of deviousness, of corruption…. and the culture is set at the top, at the Premier’s office. And followed, blindly, by her toadies, with the rare exception of someone like Alana James, someone who has ethics, morals, and a backbone.  This attitude (contempt, disrespect) toward the people and this “government/medical” sense of entitlement is the core problem.  And until that changes the privacy situation won’t get any better.

I might not mind my information being shared with researchers if I believed they had my back; If patient information was not being protected, that the researchers would make that known. But they don’t (see future post “complicit”) . I have not heard of one person, in 20+ years, speaking up (Alana James was not a researcher).   The first rule in medical research should be to protect the patient’s rights and confidentiality.  Currently, this is either their last rule or not even on their radar. Yet these are the people the privacy commissioner tries to portray as paragons of virtue.  You would think these researchers would speak up, or otherwise let it be known, as a matter of professional integrity.  Plus, “Government employees are sworn to uphold Standards of Conduct as explained by a policy statement which clearly states: ‘Employees have a duty to report any situation relevant to the BC Public Service that they believe contravenes the law, misuses public funds or assets, or represents a danger to public health and safety or a significant danger to the environment.’” (21)  But they don’t care about us.  Another government/medical business contradiction, and meaningless words on paper because the only person to uphold the Standards of Conduct is no longer with the government/medical business.

It doesn’t matter what the medical/research people are doing. The ends do not justify the means.  Under no circumstances should they have the right, or sense of entitlement, to treat us like lab rats, a commodity to be used and abused as THEY choose, with no accountability or transparency to the citizens, much less real consent by the patients.

But, all we see here is the scorn the medical/research/government people have for the citizens. And they expect us to trust them.  In my opinion, you would have to be brain-dead, or a masochist, to voluntarily give these people any information.  They have lost all credibility, all trust, all respect.

WHAT ARE THEY GOING TO DO WITH CORRUPTED INFORMATION

WHAT ARE THEY GOING TO DO WHEN THEY WANT SOMETHING, FROM SOMEONE LIKE ME, THEY CAN’T STEAL. (see future post “My Story”);

 

*This date may be not be correct due to another government “inconsistency”.

** This number has varied between 4 million and 5 million. So, presumably the government doesn’t even know how much information was “shared”.  Any number over the current population could be due to including the information of people who have left the province.

***Champions are hard to find, harder to keep, 06 Feb 2013, Burnaby Now (Our View); Keeping Accounts, 10 Apr 2013, Newsleader (Newsleader’s View); Expense cleanup must continue, Tom Fletcher, 12 Jun 2013, Black Press; also see posts “Auditor General – PARIS Report”, 24 May 2010 and “Auditor General”, 10 Jun 2011 and “Auditor General John Doyle”, 13 Apr 2013; Protect whistleblowers to protect public good, 12 Dec 2012, Burnaby Now (Our View)

 

  1. Health data of millions breached – Tyler Orton, 13 Jan 2013, 24 Hours
  2. Protect personal health info with security measures: privacy commissioner – Camille Bains, 26 June 2013, The Associated Press
  3. Vaughn Palmer: The plot just thickened on those mysterious government health firings – Vaughn Palmer, 15 Oct 2014, Vancouver Sun (a paper I didn’t buy)
  4. Policies tightened on pharmaceutical deals – 6 Sep 2012, 24 Hours
  5. B.C. Health ministry says RCMP called to investigate conflict allegations – Dirk Meissner, 06 Nov 2012, The Canadian Press
  6. B.C. Health ministry suspends workers over privacy breach – Jonathan Fowlie, 14 Sep 2012, Vancouver Sun
  7. Protect personal health info with security measure privacy commissioner – 26 Jun 2013, The Canadian Press
  8. Fork over Full Health Firings Findings: Dix – Andrew MacLeod, 12 Jan 2015TheTyee.ca
  9. Health Worker fired to Protect Liberal Donors, Suit Alleges – Andrew MacLeod, 07 May 2013, TheTyee.ca
  10. Health Ministry Firings Review an ‘Accountability Gong Show,’ Says NDP – Andrew MacLeod, 22 Feb 2014, TheTyee.ca
  11. Investigation Report F13-02, Ministry of Health – Hamish Flannigan and Pat Egan, 26 Jun 2013, Privacy Commissioner’s Office
  12. Fired Researcher Who Killed Self Was Evaluating Drug Backed by Clark – Andrew MacLeod, 03 Oct 2014, TheTyee.ca
  13. Health Ministry Mum on Fired Worker’s Rehiring – Andrew MacLeod, 07 Mar 2014, TheTyee.ca
  14. ‘I Thought I Was Doing a Good Job’: Fired Health Ministry Staffer – Andrew MacLeod,    12 Sept 2012, TheTyee.ca
  15. Privacy Commissioner to Health Minister: Whoa! – Andrew MacLeod, 3 May 2012, TheTyee.ca
  16. Taxpayers Dinged for a Thousand $1,000 Phone Calls – Andrew MacLeod, 16 Jan 2014, TheTyee.ca
  17. Emails Shed Light on Origins of Health Ministry Probe, Firings – Andrew MacLeod, 21 Oct  2014, TheTyee.ca
  18. Former Official Fears Blame for Health Ministry Firings – Andrew MacLeod, 20 Nov 2014, TheTyee.ca
  19. Health minister MacDiarmid confirms fifth firing morning after – Andrew MacLeod, 14 Sep 2012, The Hook,
  20. Health ministry fires fifth person in data, contract investigation, Andrew MacLeod, 13 Sep 2012, The Hook
  21. The best place on Earth (for pharmaceutical companies) – Alan Cassels, Mar 2013,  Online
  22. Research Stopped by Ministry Might Have Cut Big Pharma Profits – Andrew MacLeod, 8 Sep 2012, TheTyee.ca
  23. Key Health Ministry Advisor Was Surprised Firings Targeted Just ‘Low Level People’: Emails – Andrew MacLeod, 6 Nov 2014, TheTyee.ca
  24. ‘No Records’ of Requested Health Ministry Review – Andrew MacLeod,16 Feb 2015, TheTyee.ca
  25. What We Know So Far about the Health Ministry Firings – Andrew MacLeod, 19 Dec 2014, TheTyee.ca
  26. Former Senior Gov’t Official Won’t Participate in Health Firings Review – Andrew MacLeod, 25 Nov 2014, TheTyee.ca
  27. Health ministry lacked means to protect personal info – Andrew MacLeod, 26 Jun 2013, The Hook
  28. VIEW: Time to appoint a special prosecutor on healthcare firings – Andrew MacLeod,  Oct 2014, The Hook
  29. Health research scandal still shrouded in secrecy – C. McInnes, 15 Dec 2012, Vancouver Sun (a paper I wouldn’t buy)
  30. Fired BC Health Worker Sues Province – Dirk Meissner, 04 Dec 2012, The Canadian  Press
  31. Police Called, then Stalled on Health Firing Probe – Andrew MacLeod, 19 Feb 2015,  TheTyee.ca
  32. Asian trip’s aims include medical tourism and shared research – Andrew MacLeod, 04 Nov 2011, TheTyee.ca
  33. Lack of drug data is blocking important research – Andrew MacLeod, 12 Sept 2012, The Hook
  34. OSC lays charges in patient records privacy breach at two Toronto hospitals – Diana      Mehta. 02 Jun 2015, Chronicle Journal:  Health
  35. BC Medical R esearchers encouraged to seek US military funding – Andrew MacLeod, 12 Oct 2012, The Hook
  36. At Time of Firings, Health Ministry Discussed Selling Patient Data – Andrew MacLeod, 20 Mar 2015, TheTyee.ca
  37. Bill 35 – 2012 – Pharmaceutical Services Act, passed May 31, 2012
  38. RCMP probe of fired B.C. Health workers never happened – Rob Shaw, 05 Jun 2015,  Vancouver Sun
  39. Health Ministry Firings Police Probe Still Possible – Andrew MacLeod, 04 Jun 2015, TheTyee.ca
  40. Letter Shows Discrepancy in Gov’t Version of Health Firings – Andrew MacLeod, 3 Feb 2015, TheTyee.ca
  41. On Health Ministry Firings, Who Actually Received an Apology? – Andrew MacLeod, 9 Jun 2015, TheTyee.ca
  42. Wrongly Fired Health Workers Sign New Demand for ‘Thorough’ Inquiry – Andrew MacLeod, 24 Jun 2015, TheTyee.ca
  43. Fired drug researcher drops lawsuit against province – Cindy E. Harnett, 5 Jun 2015, Times Colonist
  44. Victoria drug researcher wasn’t silenced, B.C. Government says – Cindy E. Harnett, 29 May 2015, Times Colonist
  45. Fired researcher’s sister seeks answers in report due today, Cindy E. Harnett, 18 Dec 2014, Times Colonist
  46. Fired Researcher’s ‘Last Words’ Deleted from Computer, Sister Says – Andrew MacLeod,  8 Jul 2015, TheTyee.ca
  47. Christy Clark: Government has apologized for misleading public over B.C. Health firings – 05 Jun 2015 , CBC News
  48. Is Health Firings Probe Doomed to Be Too Narrow? – Bob Mackin, 15 Jul 2015, TheTyee.ca
  49. Independent inquiry urged into botched health ministry firings – Rob Show, 2 Jul 2015, Vancouver Sun
  50. Ombudsperson Pleads for Delay to Health Firings Probe – Bob Mackin, 16 Jul 2015, TheTyee.ca
  51. Editorial: Inquiry must be independent – 4 Jul 2015, Times Colonist
  52. Health Ministry Asks Staff Not to Delete Records Related to 2012 Firings – Andrew. MacLeod, 24 Nov 2015, TheTyee.ca
  53. Wrongly Fired Health Workers Reject Ombudsperson Review – Andrew MacLeod, 28 Jul 2015, TheTyee.ca
  54. Many Theories, No Answers from BC Gov’t on Health Ministry Firings – Bill Tieleman, 23 Jun 2015, TheTyee.ca
  55. B.C. Health researcher firing scandal timeline – Jeremy Allingham, 13 Jun 2015, CBC News

SELLING/TRADING/BARTERING

Are the politicians selling/trading/bartering (it’s all the same thing) us? Are we a product, a commodity, to be sold?

In B.C. researchers (whoever they are because we’re not told), claim that privacy laws make it difficult to access patient information. “Instead of asking why should we open things up, what we really want to ask is, why shouldn’t we?” observed Margaret MacDiarmid, Minister of Labour, Citizens’ Services and Open Government (1). You’ll find this statement particularly interesting when you read future post “Our Information Is Not Protected” (the privacy/firing scandal).

Point 1 – That should be the purpose of privacy laws, to make our information difficult to access.

Point 2 – Evidence proves that our information is, in fact, not protected (2).  Apparently the problem, for researchers, is that the information is not linked so they have to go to different databases.  And they want to track us.  All without OUR explicit consent and knowledge.

Richard Rosenberg, professor emeritus in computer science at the University of B.C. and a spokesman for the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said patients should have the right to determine whether their medical records can be used for research. “The argument shouldn’t be that because we’re doing good work, we should have access to whatever we want.” (1)

Point 3 – Are they all doing good work?   We don’t know because we don’t know who THEY are or what THEY are doing.  Many research/pharmaceutical/biotechnology firms, etc. have been charged for various crimes. (17, 18, 19, 23 – I could not find any Canadian charges against pharmaceuticals – interesting!!)  And the government has been caught experimenting on Aboriginal children and adults (3, 4), and giving permission for experimentation on psychiatric patients and others (9, 10, 11, 12, 13).  This information never comes to light until many years later, if at all, because the government hides the information.   An article written by Les Perreaux and Sandra Rubin states:

“The courts may be the final barrier to protect Canadians from unfettered genetic experimentation as scientists abandon public interest research in favour of corporate funding and ambitious, cutting-edge science, lawyers heard yesterday”.

“The independent scientist who conducts research for the public good ‘barely   exists any more,’ according to one leading expert on technology and public policy”.                                                                                                                                                                                                    ‘They get up and talk as if they are neutral.  But they almost always have some share in the company or some self-interested gain for their work,” said Philip Bereano, a professor from the University of Washington in Seattle. (5)  Also, read future post “Follow the Money”.

Iceland and Newfoundland provide an example of how your information can be sold/traded/bartered. In Iceland, the most famous example, a single company, deCode Genetics landed a monopoly on the national genome after acquiring exclusive access to the national health data base.  …The fundamentals of genetics are still being debated, questions such as whether companies should be allowed to patent human genes.

An article in the Financial Post states: “…which makes Newfoundland something of a motherlode to the drug development industry.  Indeed, despite the fact that modern genetics is still in its infancy, the race to exploit Newfoundlanders’ genetic heritage has become so intense that some groups have been accused of “helicopter genetics” – basically, rushing in, grabbing a few blood samples, then jetting off to file the necessary patents.  There is now a growing belief among political leaders of the province that Newfoundlanders should maintain control over their unique genome.  But the politicians are faced with a tough dilemma:  How do you build a wall without scaring off the wealthy customers?  It is “becoming an increasingly treacherous debate about ethics and profit”. (6)

There is a story about Henrietta Lacks, a woman from Baltimore, who, 60 years ago had her cancer cells taken without consent (isn’t that called theft? And unethical?). Those cells (called HeLa) were used in the biotech industry and helped create medical treatments.  “Neither she nor her family ever shared in the ‘untold riches’ but they recently gained ‘some control over scientists access to the cells’ DNA code.”  “Since DNA is inherited, information from her DNA could be used to make predictions about the disease risk and other traits of her modern-day descendants.“  “The main issue was the privacy concern and what information in the future might be revealed,’ “David Lacks Jr. said in a news conference.”  “In the past the Lacks family had been left in the dark about research stemming from HeLa cells.” (7)

So, is your DNA, and other body parts (fluids, etc.) and information, being sold/traded/bartered? Are the politicians encouraging companies to locate in BC in exchange for our personal information?  Is the government and their lackeys (for example, the corporations that run the hospitals, the universities) outright selling it?  When you donate blood, are they taking a sample and putting it in a DNA data bank for use by all of THEM.  “The Province had commenced programs and financing to attract major drug companies to British Columbia,” the notice said. “Also, the Liberal Party was receiving significant contributions from these drug companies.  And I wouldn’t be surprised to find that the politicians are lining their pockets in other ways by selling/trading/bartering us. (16)

And what about all the other increasing amounts of information that is being collected on us. The government calls it an “’e-government’ strategy – a comprehensive identity management system meant to facilitate online access to government services and the integration of databases that contain citizen’s personal information.” (20)  ‘Crime and convenience are the ways these things are always sold’, Mr. Gogolek said.  ‘They were using that with the fraud argument, but now it’s being portrayed as some kind of convenience card.’ (21)  What you end up with is one card with ALL your personal information, accessible to almost anyone who has your card number.  The government can’t/won’t protect it.  If it is in a database it is accessible (ask anyone who works in information technology, ie computers).  But now THEY don’t have to try to access different databases, it’s one stop shopping for all your information.  A hacker just has to hack one database, a government employee just has to access one database.  If the government says your information is protected, ask them to prove it because there is a load of evidence to show they DON’T protect our information (see my past/future posts, The Tyee, newspapers…)  You might also want to read Orwell’s book called1984 (I’m sure it’s at the public libraries).

Do they even want it protected? If it is discovered that a company/individual has your personal information, the politicians can hide the fact that it has been sold/traded/bartered by saying that it has been stolen.  After all, it isn’t as if we are dealing with honest, ethical, caring people.

When the LNG doesn’t provide the big tax flow the politicians promised, they have another source to generate income. (14) The government will cover up the loss of projected revenue by selling more of us (our information, our DNA, etc).

In fact, the government “was actively discussing selling patient health information to private companies”, around 2012. (8)  But why else would they be collecting a treasure trove of information?  (1)  I have also been told that, although the BC Hospital Act prescribes keeping patient information for 10 years, there is a BC directive that all hospital records be kept indefinitely.  (from email) Is this true?  Well, unlike anywhere else, B.C. has digitalized records of every prescription filled by a pharmacist since 1995, all doctor billings, hospital admissions and treatments from the same period, and results of all blood tests done since 2002. (1)  And some information has been kept since 1985 (see post “I’ve Returned).

This may also be a case where the government is already selling/trading/bartering us because “…policy trumped the law and government could do what it wants even if it breaches the law and legislation.” (22)  And, “…it doesn’t matter what the legislation says, we have government policy; that it’s unfortunate that we don’t follow the law but that we plan on changing the legislation at some point so that we will, so it’s ok for now.” (22) (see future post “Our Information is Not Protected”).

The law that allows the medical business to steal from us is immoral and unethical. It is legalized theft but theft nonetheless when you take from people without their explicit consent, and in most cases, without their knowledge.

As Micheal Vonn, of the BCCLA (British Columbia Civil Liberties Association), says:

“It’s not a conspiracy, it’s a business plan!”.

 

  1. Plan to unlock B.C.’s trove of medical data raises privacy concerns. Rod Mickleburgh, 18 Apr 2012, The Globe and Mail
  2. Past posts such as Auditor General – PARIS report 5/24/2011, Privacy Breaches 6/6/2011 and future post “Our Information Is Not Protected”
  3. Aboriginal children used in medical tests, commissioner says, Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press, 31 Jul 2013, CBC News
  4. Hungry aboriginal people used in bureaucrats’ experiments, The Canadian Press, 16 Jul 2013, CBC News
  5. Courts protect public against scientific “elite’, 14 Aug 2001, National  Post
  6. Newfoundland a motherlode for geneticists, 24 Jun 2000, Financial Post
  7. Family of Henrietta Lacks, Baltimore woman whose cells were taken without consent, wins recognition for immortal cells, 08 Aug 2013, Malcolm Ritter, Associated Press, National Post.
  8. At Time of Firings, Health Ministry Discussed Selling Patient Data, 20 Mar 2015, Andrew MacLeod, TheTyee.ca
  9. Mind-Control Part 1: Canadian and U.S. Survivors Seek Justice, Arlene Tyner, March-April 2000 issue (Vol. 7 No. 3), Probe
  10. The McGill mind behind ‘soft torture’, 23 Nov 2005, National Post
  11. CIA Activities in Canada (see the section on Project MKULTRA), Wikipedia
  12. MK-UlTRAViolence, 06 Sept 2012, The McGill Daily
  13. Donald Ewen Cameron, Wikipedia
  14. Premier’s LNG Dreams Given Reality Check By Japanese Expert, Geoff Dembicki, 30 Jun 2014, TheTyee.ca
  15. Health Worker fired to Protect Liberal Donors, Suit Alleges – Andrew MacLeod, 07 May 2013, TheTyee.ca
  16. List of the largest pharmaceutical settlements, wiki
  17. GlaxoSmithKline to pay $3 billion healthcare fraud settlement, U.S. Says, Tiffany Hsu, 02 Jul 2012, Los Angeles Times
  18. Nuremberg Trials: Big Pharma’s Crimes Against Humanity, Gabriel Donohoe, 18 Oct 2008, Natural News
  19. Privacy groups demand halt to BC ID Card roll-out. 08 Feb 2013, BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association (FIPA)
  20. Critics worry ID, Compass cards could be linked, Gordon Hoekstra, 2013/08/16, Vancouver Sun (a paper I do not buy)
  21. Emails Shed Light on Origins of Health Ministry Probe, Firings – Andrew MacLeod, 21 Oct 2014, TheTyee.ca
  22. Big Pharma behaving badly:  A timeline of settlements, 05 Oct 2010, Fierce Pharma

B.C. SERVICES CARD

“British Columbia has one of the most valuable reservoirs of health-care data in the world (bolding mine) … Unlike anywhere else, B.C. has digitalized records of every prescription filled by a pharmacist since 1995, all doctor billings, hospital admissions and treatments from the same period, and results of all blood tests done since 2002” (1).  So, why have they been collecting all this information without our knowledge, much less our permission??

The politicians are now connecting our driver’s license with our medical records and making it our provincial identification. And this is only the beginning of the linking of all your personal information to this one card.  In other words, everything about you will be accessible by one card and one number and everyone to whom you show your provincial ID will know the number to use to access your information (legally or otherwise).  They say that you have a choice to “upgrade” your license or not until 2018, at which time you lose the right to choose.  An “upgrade” for whom?  It certainly isn’t an upgrade for the patients whose information will now become more accessible.  How is this “smart”?  Although I expect this will be an “upgrade” to all the people in the government, the researchers (many, no doubt, from multinational pharmaceutical companies) plus suppliers and everyone else who accesses our information, but not an upgrade for the patients.  What is the purpose except to link all your information to one central database available to all the low-life’s (see future post – our information is not protected).

Acronyms: FIPA – B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association – www.fipa.org

BCCLA – BC Civil Liberties Association – www.bccla.org

ICM – Integrated Case Management

 

Concerns:

“…, those tasked with protecting the privacy of British Columbians say the new cards are a form of surveillance and will centralize personal data in a way that makes it attractive to hackers.”

‘When you have that much information stored or linked together, it becomes much more valuable for criminals to attack,’ “said Vincent Gogolek, executive director of the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association.” (3)
And it’s not only outside criminals but those inside the government (see future post “Our Information Is Not Protected).

“In a statement released today, Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham pointed to a number of shortcomings with the plan, and called for a halt to any further expansion of the Services Card without extensive public consultations on the risks and benefits of data linkage. And while they agree with the pause, the BCCLA and FIPA say that it will take more than a public consultation to fix what’s really broken in the government’s plan.”
“This government has got to come clean on the card before we are all forced to use it,” said Micheal Vonn, BCCLA Policy Director. “British Columbians have been provided almost no real information about it, and the Commissioner herself says she was only given an ‘abbreviated time for review’ of the program.” (4)

The ICM debacle also raises serious concerns over other government IT and identity management projects like the new B.C. Services Card, set to launch in mid-February (2013). “If we’re seeing this level of mismanagement with the ICM, not to mention other government IT programs like JUSTIN and BCeSIS, it’s a pretty safe bet we will see more of the same with the new ID cards. It’s time for a public inquiry into data linkage systems across government before more money is wasted and personal information is compromised.” (5)

See FIPA’s 2010 report on Integrated Case Management, “Culture of Care or Culture of Surveillance?”

“In a legal ruling that cuts to the core of medical privacy in the age of the genome, a woman who nearly died in a Calgary house fire and is suing the landlords for negligence has been ordered to undergo testing for Huntington’s disease, because if she has it, she may be entitled to less compensation.”

“Critics worry that the precedent of forced testing will enable insurance companies and employers to discriminate against people who are merely at risk of genetic illnesses like Huntington’s, and they call Canada an outlier in the developed world because it lacks formal legislative protection for genetic information.” (7)

Another article states “ …authorities are deliberating whether to allow the Chinese company to buy Complete Genomics of California, a major U.S. Sequencing company.” “   ..but the deal has officials there fretting over both the security of genetic data and national security.”

“ …Because the technologies involved “have national security implications related to bioweapons…”.  (6)  Is your information being used to create bioweapons.  We have no idea who is using our information or how it is being used so anything is possible.  The point is that WE should know where our information is going and how it is being used.

– “Heightened national security concerns, the growing business appetite for personal information and technological advances are all potent – and growing – threats to privacy rights,” said Stoddart (privacy commissioner) in a news release.

When I was in BC, I was asked many times, by banks, etc. for my care card number for “identification”. I gave it on one occasion, after being assured that they did not enter it into their system (for whatever that’s worth).  I later decided it would be wiser not to give it again.  In the future post “Our Information Is Not Protected” you will read how our medical information is being shared “without authorization” (illegally), with our identifying number attached and you will understand how the care card number, or B.C. Services card number, can be used to identify you and your medical information.

Your provincial identification will be available to so many people and businesses/organizations that, in effect, everyone will have it. So, if they want your information, they won’t have to try to find your care card number or search through numerous databases, they will have your B.C. Services card number.

 

(1)   Plan to unlock B.C.’s trove of medical data raises privacy concerns, Rod Mickleburgh, 2012/04/18, Globe & Mail

(2) Security concerns, technological advances threaten privacy. Joan Delaney, 07 Jan 2008, The Epoch Times

(3) B.C.’s new identity cards raise host of privacy concerns, critics say, Luke Simcoe, Metro, 09 Jan 2013

(4) Privacy Groups demand halt to BC ID Card roll-out, FIPA, 08 Feb 2013

(5) Report finds B.C. Government’s $182 million Integrated Case Management system plagued with “fundamental deficiencies”, FIPA, 25 Jan 2013

(6) Why China is a genetic powerhouse with a problem, Carolynn Abraham and Carolynne Wheeler, The Globe and Mail, 15 Dec. 2012

(7) Court orders woman who almost died in fire to undergo tests to prove symptoms not linked to genetic disease, Joseph Brean, 26 Sep 2013, National Post

I’VE RETURNED

I had to take a break due to illness (see future post – my story) and moving to a province that is much less of a surveillance state. As often happens, things take longer than expected but I learned more.  Unfortunately, most of it isn’t good.

I moved to a province where (in no particular order):

  1. there are no cameras in the streets or on the buses
  2. no retention of medical information over seven years; BC has retained medical information since 1995, so 20 years and counting (5). In some cases they have data from 1985 (see #10), so 30 years and counting
  3. there is no BC Services Card where all your information is linked (to be used for many purposes I’m sure the people of BC haven’t heard about)
  4. no MSP, much less one where the “storage, handling and administration” of our personal medical records is handled by an American company, subject to the US Patriot Act and other US laws (4)
  5. no Translink compass card on the buses (3
  6. Use of facial recognition technology limited to driver’s license (6)
  7. no smart meter or, as some people refer to it, the stupid meter
  8. As far as I know they have not taken away our right to determine who has access to our body parts and information
  9. As far as I know, they do not track children (see The Children, June 17, 2011)
  10. As far as I know, they do not track everything else on people.

For example (from The Children – June 17, 2011), in BC  “HELP partner, Population Data BC, offers the research community access to one of the world’s largest collections of health care, health services and population health care data; “Population Data BC offers qualified researchers access to a rich source of linkable,         person specific, but de-identified data on British Columbia’s four million residents, in many cases from 1985 forward. Current data holdings include health care and health service records, population and demographic data and occupational data.  This post also identifies all the other information these “people” want and, as for, de-identified, I believe that lie has been laid to rest (See future posts “Our Information Is Not Protected” and “Anonymous”).

  1. No automated license plate recognition technology (ALPR system) as far as I know (1)(2)(7)
  2. No Gag laws (see posting “Gag Law”, May 12, 2013)
    13.  No giving political parties/candidates/individuals “who voted” lists (see future post “BC Bill 20)

Look at the amount of information BC is collecting vs another province and BC plans to collect a lot more, such as Translink’s Compass card (2). In other words big brother/sister has a MUCH smaller footprint in another province and the citizens have more privacy, more rights.

When you look at the list of ways the people in BC are being tracked and information collected you have to come to the conclusion that this information, and our body parts, are being sold/traded/bartered (see future post “sold/traded/bartered).

 

 

* (see next three of my posts “Selling/Trading/Bartering”, “Smart Carecard”, “Translink”).

(1) Former solicitor general applauds license plate privacy report – Andrew MacLeod, 23 Nov 2012, The Hook

(2) Police use of licence plate scans breaks privacy law: commissioner, Andrew MacLeod, 15 Nov 2012, The Hook                                                                                                                                                                              (3)  Critics worry ID, Compass cards could be linked, Gordon Hoekstra, 15 Aug 2013, Vancouver Sun

(4) 100+ reasons the BC Liberals must go, No Strings Attached : Laila Yuile on politics and life in B.C.

(5) Plan to unlock B.C.’s trove of medical data raises privacy concerns, Rod Mickleburgh, 18 Apr 2012, The Globe and Mail

(6) Investigation Into The Use Of Facial Recognition Technology By The Insurance Corporation of BC, 16 Feb, 2012, The Office of the Privacy Commissioner

(7) We Know Where You Drove Last Night:  Police, Andrew MacLeod, 16 Nov 2012, TheTyee.ca

(8) Powerful new card to replace B.C. Care Card, The Canadian Press, 08 Jan 2013, CBC News

(9) Privacy concerns raised over Translink’s new fare card, 18 Jan 2013, CBC News

AUDITOR GENERAL JOHN DOYLE

Mr. Doyle I am truly sorry that a man of your calibre as a human being is leaving but I wish you the very best in Australia. I hope that you won’t run into the same difficulties, as you have here, in doing your job in an ethical, responsible, moral manner.

This, unfortunately, is what happens, when a good person gets into the government and works “for the people”. The dirty (is there any other kind?) politicians get rid of them. The politicians want immoral people, people who work for the politicians, covering up what they do, or at the very least, not exposing it. That’s why politics has such an ugly reputation – because the good people never last.

But I am grateful for people like Mr. Doyle, the auditor general, who show us that decent, ethical people do get into government, and, although they don’t last long, they can accomplish a lot of good things during the time they have.

 

Source: No extension. B.C. NDP want auditor general decision reconsidered – Metro, January 11, 2013

NOT VOTING

I don’t vote anymore. The politicians lie, steal, kill and destroy our democracy and rights. Then they ask us to vote for them so they can continue to do the same. I finally realized that this was a really stupid thing to be doing. Why would I dignify people who steal from everyone, but in particular, the vulnerable, the newborn babies, the sick and put them in harm’s way, by voting for them. These are people who, when you demand that your right to privacy be respected, simply take away your rights; no vote, no discussion, not even a notification to the public, just hide it in a bill with a lot of other things (see prior post).  

I was taught, from the time I was a child, that you don’t pick on the vulnerable, those weaker, smaller than you but those seem to be the prime target of politicians.

We hear about scandal after scandal. The politicians and their friends looking after themselves at the expense of the people. And you know that for every scandal we hear about there are many, many more that they have managed to hide, to cover up. I now believe that politicians are the bottom of the human race, the garbage. Mind you, they have a lot of company down there. And I think all political parties, run by politicians, are the same bottom feeders.

People have said that if you don’t vote horrible things will happen, that you will get the people you deserve, etc. I’ve noticed that horrible things happen when I do vote and I don’t get the people I deserve whether I vote or not. The politicians, the medical system, the police all collect information on law-abiding, and many of them vulnerable, people but we aren’t allowed to even know why and who it is being shared with.

I’ve heard people say that you should vote even if you ”spoil” the ballot . I tried that one year. What I noticed was that little or no mention was made of the number of spoiled ballots but everyone talked, and tracked how many people didn’t vote. Of course, they like to say that people don’t vote because they are lazy, apathetic, not interested. It sounds a lot better than saying that people don’t vote because they are so disgusted with, so repulsed by the dirty excuses for human beings called politicians.

As the number of people who vote continue to drop, there is now a suggestion that people should be forced to vote. I once said that I would agree to that if they put “none of the above on the ballot”. But then I realized that forcing people to vote in a so-called “democracy” is an oxymoron. What is democratic about it? You take away people’s right to choose whether they want to vote or whether they want to protest by not voting. Of course, with online voting possible, it would allow the politicians to screw the numbers. But forcing people to vote would make it appear that the people supported politicians.

The politicians are people for whom I have such contempt. They are the people that I try to ignore, or work around. Every time I have contact with them I find out that another right I am suppose to have is just writing on a piece of paper, like them useless (at best).

Politicians like to say they are the “servants of the people” or “public servants”.  But when a political party and the politicians get “elected” they are said to be “in power”.  And evidence shows that 99.9% of the time, it is the politicians who have the “power”, not the people (the HST being one of the rare exceptions). We are the servants of the politicians.

In a democracy politicians are suppose to be accountable to the people. They are suppose to answer the questions of the people honestly and openly. But these politicians are people who do everything they can to avoid being accountable, avoid transparency, just read any paper, online or otherwise. Just ask a question and try to get a real answer, not some con.

But, for those planning to vote, and even those not planning to vote, ask you local politician some of the following questions:

1. Why did they take away our right to privacy in the medical system?

2. Why are hospitals refusing to state, specifically, who has access to medical records?

3. Why do we not have a “right” to know who has access to our personal information?

4. What information will (is) go to the provincial medical database and who will have access and how much?

5. Ask about the committee set up to look into privacy issues in the health sector? Does it still exist? Who was/is on the committee? How would we contact them? 

Ask them to prove anything they say. And be sure to record anything they say because they lie.