Hands off
The Toronto Star
January
15, 2001
Hands off |
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| They just don't seem to learn. Ten months ago, federal bureaucrats were scolded for pulling together the information that various government departments keep on individual citizens. ``Centralizing and integrating so much personal data on almost every citizen in Canada poses significant risks to our privacy,'' warned Bruce Phillips, in his last act as federal privacy commissioner. Human Resources Minister Jane Stewart, whose officials had set up the offending database, ordered it dismantled. |
Now Statistics Canada is trying to gain access
to people's confidential tax files. It has come up with a
plan to ask Canadians, in its next census, for permission
to examine their income data. The federal agency says
this would help it determine how much money Canadians
earn. According to Sylvie Michaud of Statistics Canada, people complained to census-takers, the last time, about being asked for income figures that Revenue Canada already had. They'll complain a lot more about statisticians poking into their tax records. This is bad idea. Statistics Canada should drop it right now. |