Opposition seeks emergency probe into Health Canada cellphone tracking

A group of four Opposition MPs is asking for an emergency meeting of the House Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics to study the Public Health Agency’s (PHAC) Request for Proposal (RFP) on cell phone data tracking. Last week, Conservative Ethics critic John Brassard wrote a letter to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner asking for an investigation into PHAC’s RFP. Monday, he along with fellow Tories Damien Kurek, Lianne Rood, and Bloquiste René Villemure sent a missive to House of Commons Ethics committee chair Pat Kelly seeking an expedited meeting. Brassard told The Wire Report that in a private conversation NDP critic Matthew Green expressed his support for the measure but did not sign the letter as only four signatories are needed to kickstart an investigation. Brassard questioned the timing of the RFP. “The request for proposal to continue this program appeared on Dec. 17, 2021, the day after Parliament adjourned for the holidays and is set to expire Jan. 21, 2022, 10 days before Parliament is set to return, conveniently leaving no time during this period for questions to be asked by Parliamentarians before it is too late,” Brassard told a news conference Monday morning. “It is vital that we do not allow the COVID response to create a permanent backslide of the rights and freedoms of Canadians including their fundamental right to privacy.” In their letter the Parliamentary quartet wrote, “It is extremely alarming that a government body would use the pandemic as an excuse to secretly collect the mobile data of Canadians. There are many questions that arise from PHAC’s decision to collect this mobile data. Why was this practice not clearly communicated to Canadians? What safeguards were put in place to protect this data? Who authorized PHAC to do this?” In a Friday email to The Wire Report Health Canada said that any data would be de-identified, aggregated, cleaned and pre-processed to remove all personal identifying information. “Throughout this process, PHAC has consulted with privacy and ethics experts, including the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, to ensure the Government of Canada’s access to and use of mobility data follows best practices,” the email stated. Brassard is skeptical of those claims. “You’ll have to excuse me and other members of the committee for being cynical as to the direction PHAC is going with this because everything was done in secret,” the MP said at the news conference. In a phone interview with The Wire Report, Brassard expanded on those doubts. “The privacy commissioner said they were going to circle back to PHAC and get more details on what they were proposing. That would lead one to believe, why would they circle back if they were already aware?” he asked. The Barrie, Ontario MP said he spoke with committee chair Pat Kelly on Monday afternoon and indications are that the chair is attempting to set up the emergency meeting as soon as is practical, given COVID restrictions in the House of Commons. –Reporting by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca

Opposition seeks emergency probe into Health Canada cellphone tracking

News | January 10, 2022

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Opposition seeks emergency probe into Health Canada cellphone tracking

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