Bend Over and Say Aaaaaahhhh.....

48° 39' West; 123° 26' West

......For John Ashcroft.

In fact, you might as well beat the rush and start sending the Singin' American Attorney General your Medical Records right now.

Because, regardless the fact that the Lieberals spent little time, and even less discussion, on their amendment to the Privacy Act earlier this week, their own Privacy Commissioner, David Loukidelis says:

"...once information is sent across borders, it's difficult, if not impossible, to control. He notes that under the USA Patriot Act , the U.S. government can demand access to a wide range of personal, confidential information."

This is no longer just a local, made in British Columbia story. Due to the larger implications, even Reuters has picked it up:

...."It is also an issue for the private sector, and will have to be addressed by all jurisdictions across Canada and at the international level," Loukidelis wrote in the 151-page study that drew submissions from around the world.

Loukidelis said the extraterritorial reach of the Patriot Act should raise privacy concerns in other countries. The controversy arose when British Columbia signed a tentative agreement in March to turn its medical record-keeping operations over to the Canadian unit of U.S. information technology firm Maximus Inc. Under Canada's universal health care system, the provinces administer medical services....

Remind me again, why is the SS Gordon Campbell outsourcing all of our record keeping?

And why is this not Orwellian?