No need for RCMP to keep files secret, privacy czar says
TORONTO, ONTARIO – More than half the files in the RCMP’s secret data banks should not be there, the federal Privacy Commissioner said yesterday in a report that is likely to renew calls for an overhaul of the national police force.
An audit by the commissioner’s office found that tens of thousands of files in the RCMP’s two “exempt” banks – which are designed to hold the most sensitive national security and criminal intelligence information – should not be secret, and many should have been removed years ago.
“These finds are particularly concerning given that, with few exceptions, the audit was conducted on randomly selected files already examined by the RCMP as part of an internal review,” Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said in a news release accompanying the report.
Ms. Stoddart said the large number of files kept secret was not only unjustifiable, but illegal.
In one case, a man on a Canada-U.S. bus tour, exasperated with a delay by the tour guide, joked that he should hijack the bus, Ms. Stoddart said. The bus driver told U.S. customs officials, and the RCMP were called. Even though it was deemed that the incident was clearly not a serious hijacking attempt, a file was kept in one of the secret banks for more than five years.
Ms. Stoddart said Canadians should be concerned about the large number of unnecessarily secret files because they can have a serious impact on someone looking to cross the border or obtain security clearance for a job.
Because the files are part of the secret data banks, she said, the RCMP will neither confirm or deny they exist when individuals ask the police force if they have any files on them.
Ms. Stoddart said her findings were especially surprising because a previous audit 20 years ago also discovered serious compliance problems with the data banks – problems the RCMP undertook to fix at the time.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE….
Short URL: http://tinyurl.com/ycs63rv
