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Politics : Libertarian Discussion Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim S who wrote (3710)	5/17/2000 11:58:00 AM
From: Daniel W. Koehler	Respond to of 13062

Jim I was too. Notice now how he's the victim now. I can, of course, only speculate as to what he his malady is, but I'm thinking double cryptorchidism.<G> Dan

To: Jim S who wrote (3710)	5/18/2000 11:39:00 PM
From: Jim S	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 13062

Citizen database seems to be legal in Canada. Does this bother anyone else? Canada says no risk to privacy from giant database news.excite.com Updated 4:05 PM ET May 18, 2000 By David Ljunggren OTTAWA(Reuters) - The Canadian government Thursday dismissed fears that private companies and others would be able to access a vast federal database containing up to 2,000 pieces of information on every Canadian citizen. Human Resources Minister Jane Stewart -- already mired in a scandal over the mismanagement of multibillion dollar job programs -- fended off a barrage of questions in parliament from concerned opposition members. "It's bad enough that such a database exists in the first place. But why is this minister not concerned that it might fall into the wrong hands?" asked Deborah Grey, leader of the official opposition Canadian Alliance party. "Canadians want to know why a minister who bungled a billion of their dollars is now gathering the private, most intimate details of their lives," she said, provoking a terse reaction from the minister in question. "It is a stand-alone system that is highly controlled, there is limited access and the information is secure," Stewart replied to some catcalls and jeers. The row erupted earlier this week when privacy Commissioner Bruce Phillips released a report saying Stewart's department had quietly compiled massive files on every Canadian citizen detailing their tax, health, medical and other records. He said he was very concerned that the government had shared information from the database -- officially known as the Longitudinal Labour Force File -- with outside companies. "Successive privacy commissioners have assured Canadians that there was no single federal government file or profile about them. We were wrong -- or not right enough for comfort," said Phillips. "Continually centralizing and integrating so much personal data on almost every person in Canada poses significant risks to our privacy," he added, saying he was not convinced Stewart's department had imposed strict enough security controls. Stewart said the database is legal and insists records are used solely to help her department test the efficacy of various social programs. But some compare the idea of a single database containing vast amounts of information on 33 million living and dead Canadians to "Big Brother," the all-knowing and all-powerful figure from George Orwell's novel "1984". "Why does the minister violate Canadians' privacy without their consent?" asked Diane Ablonczy of the Canadian Alliance, who has made a career of hounding Stewart. "Protection of privacy and the information of Canadians is fundamental and I will not tolerate any breach of that in my department," said Stewart. The information includes details of income tax, employment records, ethnicity, citizenship, travel, education, marital and family status, disabilities and preferred language. "Private details are given with the tacit understanding that they will be used solely to complete the bureaucracy at hand, not for general dissemination among faceless officials. Our lives' details do not become the general property of the state," said an editorial in the National Post newspaper. Justice Minister Anne McLellan has already said it might now be time to review federal privacy legislation. The provincial government of French-speaking Quebec Wednesday asked Ottawa to destroy the confidential data it holds on Quebecers. "We believe the government should not be in possession of such information," said Immigration Minister Robert Perreault. British Columbia also voiced objections to the keeping of secret files and warned that it might withhold personal data from Ottawa unless the federal government agrees to stringent controls on how the information will be used.