“I
found 24 rather startling revelations about how the Justice Minister is
mishandling the firearms file.”
Ottawa
– On
August 29, 2001, Mr. George Radwanski, Privacy Commissioner of Canada released
his report titled: Review of the Personal Information Handling Practices of
the Canadian Firearms Program. See
Privacy Commissioner’s website: http://www.privcom.gc.ca/information/fr_010813_e.asp.
Today, Garry Breitkreuz,
MP for Yorkton-Melville, released his own analysis of the Privacy
Commissioner’s report. “The
entire 81-page report is worth reading,” said Breitkreuz, especially 34
recommendations in Appendix A – Summary of Recommendations for Parts I and
II (page 49). Upon reading the
report, I found twenty-four rather startling revelations the Privacy
Commissioner made about how the Justice Minister is mishandling the firearms
file.” Note:
See attachment for exact quotes from Privacy Commissioner’s Report.
(1)
Justice Minister has ignored Privacy Commissioner’s suggestions for years.
(Pages 4 & 7)
(2)
Privacy Commissioner says the gun registry ranges from a “significant
intrusion on privacy”
to “highly
(3)
Justice Minister has not implemented a promise made to Parliament in 1997.
(Pages 5 & 21)
(4)
Justice Minister has ignored two recommendations made by a Parliamentary
Committee.
(Page 7)
(5)
Justice Minister can’t provide a “single
point of accountability”
as promised.
(Page 10)
(6)
More provinces and territories have opted-out (seven) of the administration of
the Firearms Program than
(7)
Privacy Commissioner disagrees with Justice Minister’s claim that all private
and personal information is
(8)
Citizens may have to file up to five requests to access their personal
information.
(Pages 20 & 22)
(9)
Provincial officials can access federal firearms records but Dept. of Justice
can’t access provincial
(10)
Justice Department’s description of “Firearms
Program Records”
is incomplete and confusing.
(Page 23)
(11)
RCMP keeps Firearms Interest Police database on 3.5 million Canadians a secret.
(Page 23)
(12)
RCMP violating Privacy
Act
with operation of Police
Information Retrieval System.
(Page 25)
(13)
RCMP’s Firearms Interest Police database on 3.5 million Canadians is full of
garbage.
(Page 28)
(14)
RCMP’s Firearms Interest Police database exceeds authority granted in Section
5 of the Firearms
Act.
(Page 29)
(15)
Department of Justice is recording phone calls without knowledge or consent of
the callers.
(Page 30)
(16)
Spousal Notification Line could be collecting inaccurate and totally false
information.
(Page 30)
(17)
Treasury Board Guidelines on “information
sharing”
are being violated by Dept. of Justice, RCMP and
(18)
Department of Justice firearm studies “best
characterized as advocacy research.”
(Pages 39 & 40)
(19)
Department of Justice studies do not identify risk factors that predict firearms
misuse. (Page
44)
(20)
Some Department of Justice studies arrive at the opposite conclusion.
(Page 44)
(21)
Department of Justice asking too many personal questions not supported by their
research.
(Page 45)
(22)
Criminal records and history of violence best indicators of domestic violence.
(Pages 45 & 47)
(23)
Department of Justice does not even know how the “highly
intrusive”
questions are being used.
(Page 46)
(24)
Justice Department has not proven a “demonstrable
need” for
the “highly
intrusive”
questions contrary to
For a more detailed explanation please read:
REVELATIONS IN THE PRIVACY COMMISSIONER’S REPORT
-30-