THUNDER BAY - The Thunder Bay Police Service accessed the provincial COVID-19 database more than 14,000 times, the second highest rate of searches in Ontario, despite the district only having 100 confirmed cases.
Under the province’s Emergency Measures and Civil Protections Act, which was instituted in April, first responders, including police services were permitted to access the provincial COVID-19 database.
“With their safety and health in mind, our government has made an emergency order that will allow police, firefighters and paramedics to obtain COVID-19 positive status information about individuals with whom they are coming into contact,” said Minister of Health, Christine Elliott when the order was enacted.
“The information disclosed will be limited to an individual's name, address, date of birth, and whether the individual has had a positive COVID-19 test result. Strict protocols will be enforced to limit access to this information and will only be used to allow first responders to take appropriate safety precautions to protect themselves and the communities they serve.”
The order resulted in legal action from human rights groups, including the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, which said it violated individuals' rights to privacy and equality.
According to a statement by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association posted on Monday, the province has since ended police access to COVID-19 database.
“In light of the government’s decision we have decided to end the current litigation which focused on the province’s actions. The fight to protect Ontarian’s medial privacy, however, is not over,” the statement reads.
The statement goes on to say that police services across Ontario searched COVID-19 testing results databases more than 95,000 times between April and July, with the Thunder Bay Police Service and the Durham Regional Police Service accounting for more than 40 per cent of all searches.
“Thunder Bay Police Service in particular accessed the personal health information in the database over 14,800 times – a rate of access that is ten times higher than the provincial average – even though the area has reported only 100 positive cases since the outset of the pandemic,” the statement reads.
The Thunder Bay Police Service leads all other services on a per capita basis, conducting 12.5 searches for every 100 people.
The Durham Regional Police Service conducted 3.5 searches per 100 people.
According to a letter from the Ministry of the Attorney General, the majority of police services that accessed the database more than 1,000 times between April 17 and July 20 are in Southern Ontario.
The Ontario Provincial Police accessed the database 3,692 times, while the Greater Sudbury Police Service did so 799 times, and the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service 179 times.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association said it has written to police service boards and police chiefs asking who has access to this information and how it is being stored.
“We are calling on the police to destroy the personal health information they have collected to date,” the statement on its website reads.
“We are also calling on the jurisdictions with the highest per capita use of the database – Thunder Bay, Durham Region, London, Kawartha Lakes and Guelph – to conduct audits to ensure the data access to date complied with policy and legal requirements.”
Thunder Bay Police Service was contacted by tbnewswatch.com for comment on accessing the COVID-19 database.
“We are reviewing the questions and issues raised in the media release and letter,” said Director of communications and technology, Chris Adams. “We will be addressing them in a report to our Police Services Board in the near future and will be better able to comment after that.”
