Just What Is A Pound Of Our Flesh Going For?

SellEverything
PrivatizationVille


Johnathan Fowlie, Vancouver Sun
Published: Saturday, March 04, 2006

The provincial government has auctioned off computer tapes containing thousands of highly sensitive records, including information about people's medical conditions, their social insurance numbers and their dates of birth.

Sold for $300 along with various other pieces of equipment, the 41 high-capacity data tapes were auctioned in mid-2005 at a site in Surrey that routinely sells government surplus items to the public.

Included among the files were records showing certain people's medical status -- including whether they have a mental illness, HIV or a substance-abuse problem -- details of applications for social assistance, and whether or not people are fit to work.

"This should never happen," Mary Carlson, director of the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of B.C., said Friday in an interview.

"There are dignity issues involved in a lot of these disclosures," she said, pointing to things such as HIV status and a need to apply for social assistance.

In an interview Friday afternoon, Labour Minister Mike de Jong, whose ministry oversees the auction process, said he has ordered an immediate investigation to determine how the breach took place.

"It is completely unacceptable for information like this to be unsecured in the way this clearly is," he said.

"People deserve to know [this] type of information . . . is secure and kept private," he added, offering an apology. "I can think of no excuse for information of this sort finding its way into the public domain."

Clearly, Mr. de Jong is shocked.....just shocked!

Which brings us back to a question we have asked about Mr. Gordon Campbell's BC Liberal Government many times before:

Is there anything of ours that this bunch wouldn't sell for money?

Because somehow we get the feeling that they know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

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