If you’re from Winnipeg, you’re well aware of the terrible tragedy of Brian Sinclair, who passed away in the emergency department of the Health Sciences Centre after waiting to see a doctor for 34 hours. Manitoba’s NDP government and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) have been dealing with the political and legal consequences since Mr. Sinclair’s death last fall.
I was asked yesterday to provide comment to the Winnipeg Sun on the validity of the government’s recent claim that it could not release the first administrative review into the tragedy because of privacy concerns. The story serves as a reminder to government bodies and businesses of the challenges (and need for expert legal counsel) when dealing with access to information and related privacy matters.
A separate story reported at TechCrunch demonstrates the risks when releasing redacted documents to the public. Canadian privacy laws typically require organizations to blackout, or redact, portions of documents that contain someone else’s personal information unless that person consents to its disclosure. It’s a time-consuming, but important, step that organizations need to take before disclosing documents under access to information legislation. But, as this story points out, organizations need to be very careful about how they redact!
