THINGS EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT CPIC

By Garry Breitkreuz, MP – May 23, 2002

For the last two weeks the Star Phoenix and the Leader Post have been running front-page articles, columns and editorials on the recent investigations into breaches of privacy and public trust by police and government officials in the Province of Saskatchewan.

CPIC, the Canadian Police Information Centre, has been the focus of all this recent attention.  One point only mentioned in passing is the fact that CPIC contains information on firearms and their owners.  What the newspapers have failed to point out is how much firearms information is available to everyone with access to a CPIC computer terminal.  I must also point out that the vast majority of this very private and personal information in our police computers is on law-abiding citizens – NOT CRIMINALS! 

Here’s the latest firearms information we know is in the CPIC system:

• Information on 3,731,716 individuals in the Firearms Interest Police (FIP) database.
• Information on 1,879,070 individuals with firearms licences.
• Information on 4,668,168 registered firearms and their owners.

We only have this information because the government was forced to give it to us by the Access to Information Act.

On April 19, 2002, the RCMP sent us a document showing that there had been 221 confirmed breaches of CPIC since 1995 with another 193 possible breaches still under investigation.  Why should every Canadian citizen be concerned about these breaches whether they own firearms or not?  Because YOU may be in the police files and may not know it! 

The fact is that the government has collected information on millions of honest citizens without their knowledge and consent and violated their privacy rights in the process.  Once these mistakes are uncovered, citizens have found it impossible to get the false information removed from their CPIC files because the RCMP passes the buck to other police forces and agencies.  The Privacy Commissioner of Canada is investigating.

In his report to Parliament on August 29, 2001, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada had this to say about the RCMP’s handling of sensitive firearms information on law-abiding Canadians:

Page 5 - “Much of the information collected in the application process—about mental health, job losses, bankruptcies, substance abuse, etc.—is highly intrusive.” [Emphasis added]

Page 28 – The Firearms Interest Police (FIP) database contains: “…unsubstantiated and derogatory information, unproven charges or allegations, hearsay, records that are older than 5 years, incidents and charges that have been cleared or acquitted, duplicate entries as well as information about witnesses, victims of crime and various other associated subjects. People are unaware that they are being flagged in FIP as possible risks to public safety. Also, inaccurate information on FIP or information that has already been the subject of a previous investigation and cleared, is used over and over.”

Page 29 - “At this time, neither the RCMP nor DOJ [Dept. of Justice] has a framework or methodology in place to verify how many of the FIP records fall outside of the requirements of section 5 of the Firearms Act. In addition, outside of the formal channels under the Privacy Act, there is no way of knowing how many times a FIP file has been subject to a correction request (formal or informal).”

Here’s a sample of what the Privacy Commissioner is still investigating:

• A review of the Canadian Firearms Program's contractual arrangements with private investigators conducting tertiary screening investigations.
• A review of the privacy implications of the Dept. of Justice privatization plans for the Canadian Firearms Program including a review of the existing contractual agreement with BDP Inc., a company in Ottawa that is providing Data and Image Capture Services as part of an Outsourced Processing Centre.
• A review of the personal information handling practices by the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA) involved in the customs declarations component of the Firearms Act.
• A review of the information sharing arrangement with the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF), as well as any other existing international agreement relating to the Canadian Firearms Program.

Often people raise the argument, “If you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about.”  Well, nothing could be further from the truth.  As the events in Saskatoon have shown, your personal information could be leaked to people with criminal intent.  In fact, it could have already happened.  Don’t you think you should find out if the RCMP has a file on you?

Everyone has the right to know what personal information the RCMP have on them in their computers, and all it costs is the price of a postage stamp to find out.  Simply fill out a Personal Information Request Form and send it to the following address:

Departmental Privacy and Access to Information Co-ordinator

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

1200 Vanier Parkway

Ottawa, Ontario

K1A 0R2

If you need more information, please visit my website at: www.garrybreitkreuz.com or call, write, fax or e-mail me at:  

Garry Breitkreuz, MP (Yorkton-Melville) House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6

Phone: (613) 992-4394  Fax: (613) 992-8676  E-Mail: breitg@parl.gc.ca