Last fall, Daniel Therrien, the government’s newly appointed Privacy Commissioner of Canada, released the annual report on the Privacy Act, the legislation that governs how government collects, uses, and discloses personal information. The lead story from the report was the result of an audit of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police practices regarding warrantless requests for telecom subscriber information.
The audit had been expected to shed new light into RCMP information requests. Auditors were forced to terminate the investigation, however, when they realized that Canada’s national police force simply did not compile the requested information. When asked why the information was not collected, RCMP officials responded that its information management system was never designed to capture access requests.
While that raised serious concerns – the RCMP has since promised to study mechanisms for reporting requests with recommendations expected in April – my weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) reports that documents recently obtained under the Access to Information Act reveal that the publicly released audit results significantly understated the severity of the problem. Indeed, after the draft final report was provided to the RCMP in advance for comment, several of the findings were toned down for the public release.
Behind the scenes, however, documents suggest that Privacy Commissioner of Canada auditors were deeply concerned with what they found. In fact, just two days before the public release of the audit, one of the lead auditors wrote a memorandum to file to ensure that there was a paper trail chronicling what actually took place.
The memorandum specifically references a 2010 RCMP document that purported to list tens of thousands of warrantless subscriber information requests. The document indicated that 94 per cent of requests involving customer name and address information was provided voluntarily without a warrant.
The Privacy Commissioner of Canada auditors apparently expected that document, which was previously released under the Access to Information Act, to serve as the starting point for their review of RCMP practices. The internal memorandum notes that “we expected that these statistics would be accurate, complete, and up-to-date and that they would allow us to review RCMP files related to such warrantless requests.”
Once the auditors began examining the data, however, they found something entirely different. The internal memorandum states that “based on the evidence below we found, on the contrary, that the statistics provided for 2010 (and later for 2011-2013) were inaccurate, incomplete, not current, and they were not useful identifying PROS files for review.”
The internal memorandum continues by citing specific problems with the RCMP evidence, acknowledging that “problems with the reliability of data were also provided by way of interviews with senior officials.” The details of those interviews are redacted, however, the memorandum states that “from these discussions we also found that statistics for warrantless access are inaccurate because of lack of reporting, multiple reporting or overlapping reporting.”
The conclusion leaves little doubt about the problems the auditors encountered. It goes far further than the publicly released report, noting that “based on our review of statistics and interviews with senior officials at the RCMP we were unable to rely upon the numbers provided for warrantless access requests, nor was there any linkage between reports of such requests and the actual operational files containing such requests.”
In short, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada set out to audit the RCMP in the hope of uncovering the details behind requests for subscriber information. What it encountered instead was inaccurate data and an effort to downplay the problems within the public report.
The incident highlights the limits of Canadian oversight over law enforcement and surveillance activities. The use of the privacy commissioner’s audit power is frequently lauded as a mechanism to ensure that government does not run afoul of the law. Yet despite identifying inaccurate and incomplete data on a high profile privacy issue, the public audit report does not use the terms “inaccurate” or “incomplete.”
The shortcomings in both practice and oversight point to the need for a strong legislative and policy response. As a starting point, the RCMP should provide detailed guidance on its policy on customer name and address requests and regularly report on those requests. Moreover, mandatory reporting requirements for telecommunications companies on subscriber disclosures could be added to Bill S-4, the government’s privacy reform package that is currently before the House of Commons.
My wife and I just got confirmation from The Justice Department Of Canada that all my information they had on me regarding the dealings that I have had with them from the age of 9 till present day has been put under the control of CSIS. They said to get my information from the age of 9 till now that I will have to get it from them. I wonder what the hell they are doing with my juvenile information under their control. Follow the money.
Prove it.
Provide the contact information of the doctor refusing to release your medical records, since there’s no actual legal precedent for any doctor witholding medical records from one of their patients, let alone turn them over to the government for “security reasons.”
Prove that there’s an “intelligence agent” at every appointment you go to at every medical facility you’ve been to. You’d think if it’s happening that often you’d have thought to have snapped a picture of the guy who has no business being at your appointment in the first place. Again, no legal precedent for anyone other than you and your doctor to be in a doctor’s appointment, if there were you’d be well within your rights to ask (or tell) them to leave. I suspect the reason you haven’t is that the “agent” doesn’t exist. Oh, but maybe they took away your camera or phone and told you that you’d be arrested if you took any pictures, right? Because I just gave you that idea and you incorporated it into your personal fiction.
Prove that you have “lumps” growing in your body as a result of being poisoned by the government for…reasons. Seriously, you haven’t even bothered to try and explain that one, why would the government poison you in a way that’s blaringly obvious (I would think a lump growing behind your eye that “pushes” it out would have gotten the attention of a neurologist as well, but somehow your questionable “doctor” seems to have completely missed the facial disfigurement). Incidentally, if a doctor took 28 tubes of blood from you in one appointment you wouldn’t have walked out of the room, so that’s a lie too, but hey…prove me wrong, let’s see some pictures. Even of the paperwork ordering the tests. Do you have any? What’s funny is that I searched around on a number of websites and search engines and I couldn’t find a single one that even describes what a “total blood biopsy” is. In fact the first of the three results for it on Google is your own comment on this site. Made it up, didn’t you? Made it up because it sounded technical so you figured no one would question you on it.
Hell, you have lumps growing all over you, where are the pictures of those? Nobody’s stopping you from posting them…or are they? DUN DUN DUN…give me a break.
You got “confirmation from the Justice Department of Canada” that your medical records have been taken away for “security reasons?” Let’s see it. Obviously that came in the form of a phone call or a letter and you’re too much of a paranoid schizo to have NOT recorded or scanned a picture of something like that, so let’s see it. Let’s see the evidence.
Why would the good “doctor” simultaneously tell you that the cardiologist shouldn’t have given you the results of your own heart test, then proceed to tell you exactly how the supposed “secret agents” have been poisoning you at “dance clubs?” Dance clubs in BC no less? Something tells me you’ve been messing around in clubs taking whatever pills you can get your hands on and it’s exacerbating an already unstable mental state, but hey, let’s say you’re right. If all the medical records are being taken away to remove any proof of the supposed poisoning, why isn’t the doctor being silenced for telling you EXACTLY how the supposed “secret agents” are poisoning you in the first place? I’m guessing the real advice you got was closer to “stop buying ecstacy in K-Town,” but again, that doesn’t fit with your made-up narrative that has you as the star of some Bourne-style conspiracy.
You’re ridiculous, lying and possibly insane. Get off your computer, stop taking street drugs and shut up, either that or prove your ridiculous claims by providing some evidence.
That’s the same thing my doctor told my also. He said all my medical record were sent to Ottawa for security reasons. I wasn’t even able to get my test results from my doctor revealed to me about the poisonings. He told me all my test results from after the poisonings have been put under the control of Ottawa for security reasons. They did chest scans and ultrasounds and they did stool tests and urine test and they did what they called a total blood biopsy, the took 28 tubes of blood from me while a intelligence agent waited in the waiting room and I wasn’t even allowed to know the outcome of the test results. The cardiologist told my wife and I after my chest scans and ECG that I got a heart murmer probably from the poisonings and she let my wife and I listen to the murmer through the ultrasound. Then for security reason all the test results and my medical records were sent to Ottawa and we were not allowed to know the results. I asked my doctor about the heart murmer and he told me the cardiologist was not supposed to tell me about that. My doctor asked my wife and I where we got poisoned and we told him from the agents we met at the dance clubs and he told us to stay away from the clubs. That’s all he would tell us. He knew people were being targeted. Folow the money.
So how are we supposed to get our information from CSIS and Ottawa without them holding back the information that we need to convict them. We were poisoned quite a few times after that also in the last 5 years in British Columbia and the other time I went to get treated the doctor didn’t want to treat me and he sent me home, the whole time I was at the hospital they had a uniformed RCMP officer standing in the ER watching over me. All the doctor would do was take my blood presure and sent me home. I felt ill for months and that is when the lumps growing throughout my abdomin where starting to grow and become very painful. I have one lump growing in my abdomin now that’s the size of a grapefruit. It takes up most of my stomach so it is hard to hold food in my stomach. I have a lump growing in my head on the right side that has taken my hearing away in my right ear and it pushes my right eye forward. I am not sure if we can trust the doctors here in BC. I want to go see if they can remove the lumps from my body but I don’t trust the doctors here. They will probably have to put me under so who can I trust to do that. In the last 5 years whenever I go to the hospital or the doctors office there is either an agent or a cop there watching over us. I don’t want to die on the operating table.
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It must of been some type of nerve agent that I was poisoned with because I had paralysis that still affect me to this day. After being poisoned the right side of my body went numb. I was having a hard time controlling my muscles. The right side of my face went droopy and my kidneys were severly aching and my skin turned yellow. My muscle control was so bad I couldn’t even double click on a file on my computer desktop 2 times fast enough to open the file, I could left click the file one time but I didn’t have the coordination to be able to click it a second times fast enough to open it. My urine was dark brown. When I took a leak in the toilet the water would turn brown. My right ear started ringing loudly and It has been ringing ever since. As the lump in my head started growing I slowly lost me hearing in my right ear. In the last 6 years the feeling in the right side of my body slowly came back from years of exercising but parts of my foot are still numb and parts of my hand are still numb and the numbness comes back a even more sometimes. My reflexes haven’t been the same since. I walked with a limp for quite a while because of my right leg being numb and my gait still isn’t quite the same. When I use my right leg to walk alot my right foot will still go numb and when I use my right arm alot my right hand will go numb also. I have been poisoned a few times after that but not as bad as that time. When we were told to leave Ontario and come back to BC because our lives were in danger that is when Kathy Liknes tried to help us survive. She offered us work and a large amount of money if we were to stay in Ontario and work for her. She wanted us to help her with her real estate properties. She offeed us work doing repair on her properties before she sold them. She wanted us to use the $250,000 dollars she offered us to start a business and work with her. She told us the Ontario government was going to pay us the money for the abuse to our family from Canadian Intelligence. We should of listened to her. They murdered her and her family as a warning to everyone to keep their mouths shut just like they told us our daughters have been murdered. When we arrived in Victoria B.C. the B.C. government knew what happened, they were expecting us to arrive, it took us 3 days to get here by bus and we met with intelligence agents through out our trip that would speak to us at every major stop and quiz us to check our state of mind to make sure we were OK. When we got to B.C. the government told us Canadian Intelligence put out a cross Canada alert on us. We were interviewed by an Intelligence agent on September 11th 2009 in Victoria and she knew about the poisonings and everything. The story she told us was Canadian Intelligence was trying to blame something on us that one of their agents did. She looked scared. She interviewed us for about a half an hour and the government put us on government disability right away. That same day the head of Canadian Intelligence put out a message to all intelligence agencies across Canada that it was OK to leverage the powers of the FIVES EYES spying community based on the 30-08 warrants issued by JUDGE RICHARD MOSLEY without JUDGE RICHARD MOSLEYS knowledge. Look it up in JUDGE RICHARD MOSLEY reasoning for ordering CSIS to stop using the warrants. We have documentation from the B.C. government stating everything even the CROSS CANADA SECURITY ALERT issued on us by Canadian Intelligence. That’s why they tried to murder us, we have an affidavid from the B.C. government that they wanted to get back from us but we refused to give it back to them. They broke into out hotel rooms numerous time looking for the documentation. THANK GOD FOR JUDGE RICHARD MOSLEY – HE SAVED OUR LIVES. Thanks for reading. Follow the money.
What a material of un-ambiguity and preserveness of valuable
knowledge about unpredicted feelings.
My wife and I are trying to get our investigation information from the RCMP so we can sue them for the murder of our 2 daughters over the fradulent terror investigation they done on us. We asked them for all the investigation information they have on us. We just got a reply from them today and they said they have to know what specific RCMP detachment we need our information from because they say that their units are autonomous and they need to know the specific one or else they can’t find our information. I guess RCMP detachments don’t share terror investigation information among themselves. Something else we think if strange is our website is no longer getting international visitors. Since we started our website we got most of our visitors from international countries like Europe and Eastern Europe, Asia and Southern Asia, South and Central America, everywhere around the world. Now our visitors are from THE FIVE EYES countries only, for some reason we are being blocked internationally. I guess BILL C-51 must of took effect already.