News Release
Privacy Commissioner of Canada releases report of his Office's review
of the Canadian Firearms Program
Ottawa, August 29, 2001 - The Privacy Commissioner of Canada
today released the report of his Office's review of the Canadian Firearms
Program. The report makes 34 detailed recommendations aimed at reducing
the privacy intrusiveness of the Program. The report was delivered to the
Minister of Justice and officials of the Department of Justice, the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), as well as other Program officials.
The Canadian Firearms Program is a multi-jurisdictional program that
regulates the mandatory registration of all firearms in Canada and sets
the licensing requirements for firearms owners under the Firearms Act.
This legislation has a direct impact on more than 2.3 million owners of
more than seven million firearms in Canada. The Commissioner's Office has
received numerous complaints and inquiries about the Program since it was
first proposed, including some from Members of Parliament.
"While gun control is important to the security of Canadians, the
Program inevitably involves a significant intrusion on privacy. It
requires the collection of a vast amount of personal information for
purposes of the application and screening process," said George Radwanski,
Privacy Commissioner of Canada. "On the whole, our review has not found
any egregious violations of the Privacy Act. We have found,
however, a number of instances where the privacy of Canadians could be
strengthened."
The main privacy concerns about the Program and recommendations for
corrective measures in the report relate to access and correction rights;
and the collection and use of personal information. The recommendations
carefully balance the need for public safety with the fundamental right to
privacy.
Another one of the Commissioner's key concerns related to the highly
intrusive nature of some of the "personal history" questions on the
firearms application. The report recommends that one of these questions
should be revised and two others eliminated because the Program did not
provide a sufficient or "demonstrable need" for this kind of personal
information.
Other recommendations in the report include the following:
- The Department of Justice should follow through on its 1997 promise
to negotiate information-sharing agreements. This would ensure that
personal information collected for the Firearms Program would be
protected in accordance with the intent and spirit of the Privacy Act
and principles of fair information practices, and that the federal
Act would apply in cases where there is no parallel provincial or
territorial privacy legislation. To date, there are no such agreements
in place.
- Due to the multi-jurisdictional nature of the program and because
personal information is held at three different levels of government,
requesting access and corrections is unduly complicated and onerous.
Under the Privacy Act, individuals have an explicit right to
access information about themselves held by a government institution.
This includes, but is not limited to, a right to request correction of
the information. Consideration should be given to creating a single
access and correction point at the federal level.
- The Firearms Act gives Firearms Officers very broad powers
and discretion to investigate and gather excessive amounts of
information about applicants. Access to police information should be
tightened, restricting Firearms Officers to limited, specific and
relevant information only. Firearms Officers should not be granted open
and full access to the RCMP's Police Information Retrieval System.
- An auditing framework should be established to verify the validity
and accuracy of the Firearms Interest Police records. The Department of
Justice's Canadian Firearms Centre is responsible for issues respecting
data quality on Firearms Interest Police and, under the Privacy Act,
must maintain accurate, complete and up-to-date information.
- Consistent policies and procedures should be established across
Canada to resolve correction issues related to the Firearms Interest
Police database. This should go beyond simply referring clients back to
the "source" agency to ensuring that corrections and notations are made
in both the automated system and the original records.
- Policies and procedures should be implemented to ensure the
necessary security measures are in place with respect to the handling of
personal information by volunteer verifiers.
- Policies and procedures should be implemented regarding the
collection of personal information from credit reporting agencies. The
Privacy Commissioner questions the need to search Credit Bureau files.
The Privacy Commissioner is confident the Department of Justice will
review the report thoroughly and recognize the importance of
implementing all the recommendations.
- 30 -
For more information, contact:
Anne-Marie Hayden
Media Relations
Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Tel.: (613) 995-0103
ahayden@privcom.gc.ca
The report, entitled Review of the Personal Information Handling
Practices of the Canadian Firearms Program, is available on the
Privacy Commissioner of Canada's Web site at www.privcom.gc.ca.
The Privacy Commissioner of Canada is an Officer of Parliament and
an advocate of the privacy rights of Canadians with a mandate to
investigate complaints, and conduct audits and reviews under two federal
laws; publish information about personal information-handling practices in
the public and private sector; take matters to the Federal Court of
Canada; conduct research into privacy issues; and promote awareness and
understanding of privacy issues by the Canadian public.
