Privacy watchdog blasts Veterans Affairs

[CHIMO]

Canada’s Privacy Commissioner is launching a wide-ranging audit of Veterans Affairs after an investigation by her office found an alarming breach of a Gulf War veteran’s privacy rights.

But Jennifer Stoddart says she will never be able to point fingers, nor can she say whether the department’s top bureaucrats are deliberately using private mental-health records to discredit vets who speak out against the government.

That’s because her mandate does not allow her to consider the motive of public servants who break privacy laws. Further, the rules allow fines only against people in the private sector, not government officials.

Ms. Stoddart said she has urged the government to update Canada’s Privacy Act for years, to no avail.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/privacy-watchdog-blasts-veterans-affairs/article1747351/

M. Drapeau was on Power & Politics today and his analysis, in my memory of the program, is that the report is not worth the paper that it is written on.

It is not signed by the Commissioner. The recommendations are worded as should. It is a document that is meant for the dust bin.