Category: Politics

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”).

11. No automated license plate recognition technology (ALPR system) as far as I know (1)(2)(7)
12. 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

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

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.

 

Collection, use and disclosure of personal information:

22  (1) The minister may collect personal information under this Act for one or more of the following purposes:

(c) for a prescribed purpose.

(2) The minister may use and disclose, inside Canada, personal information collected under subsection  (I) for one or more of the following purposes:

(i) to conduct or facilitate research into health issues;

(k) for a prescribed purpose.

(3) The minister may disclose, outside Canada, personal information collected under subsection (1) for one or both of the following purposes:
(a) to conduct or facilitate research into health issues;

This act gives the government and their friends the right to use our information without our knowledge, must less our consent.

How will it be used? We don’t know. For example, as Vincent Gogolek of FIPA states, a prescribed purpose “could be anything”. He also believes that we should have the right to say NO to having our information shared even anonymously. So, in essence the politicians have given themselves, and their friends, the legal right to do whatever they want with our personal/medical information as opposed to doing it illegally as they have in the past.

Personally, if they want my information, I want to answers to questions such as (for starters) who they are (name of research organization), I want to know what type of research they are doing, I want to know if it is being done outside Canada, if it is being done anonymously, how the information is being protected (with proof). If they want my information they should be required to set up a webpage providing this information. Then I can decide if my information is being shared appropriately. I want them to be transparent so they can be held accountable. They don’t want to be transparent, and therefore accountable, which proves I do have reason to be concerned. Also I want to know what money, or other form of gain, is being exchanged, who pays and who receives.

I would also like more details. The Act is vague (do you know what it means to you?) and if the politicians can’t provide more specifics about what they mean then they don’t know what they are doing or they are trying to hide what they are doing.

Even the privacy commissioner Elizabeth Denham states: “In Bill 35, I have a concern about the broad and unfocused authority for the minister to collect and share personal health information under that act,” she said. Again, it appears the politicians have ignored the privacy commissioner when implementing this act. It appears that, as usual, the privacy commissioner wasn’t even consulted.

According to the Vancouver Sun (a paper I never buy) “Hansen says sufficient safeguards are already in place to assure both the anonymity of records and to ensure they will only be released to responsible researchers.” We are not given the opportunity to determine if these researchers are responsible, only the politicians do that and we know how ethical they are. Also, see my next blog about the latest scandal on patient information being shared, apparently illegally, with researchers (which contradicts Colin Hansen’s statement of safeguards). As usual the politicians will ignore the evidence that our information is NOT being protected and just tell you what they want you to believe (brainwashing).

Our information can now go into other countries. What information is going into other countries? Whose laws apply to our information in this other country? Can our information be accessed under the U.S. Patriot Act (I really don’t believe that all the information shared will be anonymous now any more than it has in the past).

The politicians would have you believe that all researchers are ethical, and moral but they are not. I don’t think that anyone who takes my information without my personal knowledge and consent has any ethics, morals or integrity. And pharmacetical companies, one of (if not the) main funder of researchers, have been charged and convicted numerous times for various illegal acts. Not all research benefits society. In fact, some of it harms society.

Information has been shared with researchers in the past and is supposedly done so under specific circumstances. But as shown in the past, for example the Auditor General’s audit of the Vancouver Coastal Health database and the recent scandal, the rules aren’t followed. The hospitals just give the information and nothing is done to ensure that the information is properly used or protected. There are words on paper and there is reality.

Colin Hansen has been pushing to give our information to researchers while he was in the Liberal government and even now that he has left. I will be interested to hear where he gets his next job or directorship.

Again, if they have to take OUR information without our knowledge/consent, if they have to hide what they are doing with OUR information, then they are doing something wrong, something they don’t want you to know about.

 

WITHOUT TRANSPARENCY, THERE IS NO ACCOUNTABILITY

AND THERE IS NO DEMOCRACY

 

Sources:

– Bill 35 – Pharmacetical Services Act

– FIPA – Piecemeal Repeal of FIPPA? – June 1, 2012

– The Hook – Drug Bill Includes Personal Information Grab: Advocate – Andrew MacLeod, April 30, 2012

– Vancouver Sun, Craig McInnes, May 3, 2012

 

There was an article in The Province (not a paper I buy) on Aug. 12, 2012. The article was by Geoff Plant, chairman of Providence Health Care, which operates St. Paul’s and other hospitals/clinics. I don’t know if this article was paid for by the taxpayers, but that’s another issue. 

In the article G. Plant extols the virtues of St. Paul’s (a very one-sided view) but what interested me was the statement that St. Paul’s brings in research dollars of $43 million from outside sources annually. So, what are the research companies buying — us?

Is St. Paul’s selling us?? We, of course, are not allowed to know.

Geoff Plant is a former liberal attorney general and teaches at UBC (the university is involved in research with St. Paul’s). Interesting how it’s all connected by the same people.

But, it keeps coming back to the same issue. If everything is above-board, honest, ethical, moral, then why won’t they tell us who they are sharing our information with (names of companies/individuals and under what circumstances); why do they hide this information?

No transparency, no accountability.