From The Vancouver Sun

December 18, 2004

Pages A1 and A10

U.S. law 'threatens Canada's secrets'

Patriot Act opens our data to U.S. agencies, document reveals



Ottawa -- Highly sensitive personal, military and national security

information held by the Canadian government is accessible to U.S.

authorities under the Patriot Act, according to a document obtained Friday.

A team of Canadian government lawyers studied the vulnerability of

top-secret data after a controversy broke out in B.C. earlier this year over

whether British Columbians' personal medical records were being put at risk

due to the provincial government's plan to contract out services to a U.S.-owned firm.

"Their preliminary findings indicate that the Federal Bureau of

Investigation could require an American corporation under the U.S. Patriot

Act to disclose information under its control, including information held by

its Canadian subsidiaries," wrote Mark Seely, an official with Public Works

and Government Services Canada, in a July 22, 2004 e-mail to more than two

dozen Public Works officials.

"The specific contracts that have been identified at risk include sensitive

information, such as personal information about individuals or highly

sensitive information relating to security or defence."

The Patriot Act allows the FBI to force, with the threat of stiff penalties, any American company to reveal their clients' secrets.

"The U.S. Patriot Act prohibits the corporation from disclosing that they

have given the information to the FBI," he wrote.

Liberal MP Diane Marleau, Alcock's parliamentary secretary, made a similar

carefully worded statement earlier this month in the House of Commons.

"The actions taken by the government in response to potential privacy and

contracting risks posed by the U.S.A. Patriot Act include, among others: a

review by government departments of their outsourcing arrangements to

determine if action is needed; continuing the review of federal privacy laws

and policies; and cooperating with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner on

the planned audit in this fiscal year of the transfer of personal

information between Canada and the United States."

Marleau praised Paul Cellucci, the American ambassador to Canada, who

promised to review the B.C. report.

"We welcome these comments by the U.S. ambassador to have more dialogue on

achieving the right balance between privacy rights and effective law

enforcement," Marleau told the House of Commons.

She noted the federal government has a legislative requirement to ensure

"the protection of personal information about Canadians and other key

sensitive information holdings through the Privacy Act and the Personal

Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act."

Here are some of the government contracts involving U.S.-based firms:

- EDS Advanced Solutions Inc., a subsidiary of the Texas-based multinational

Electronic Data Systems Corp., won a 10-year, $270-million contract last

month to act as a collection agency, going after British Columbians who

haven't paid their health-care premiums, student loans, or court fines.

- A subsidiary of Virginia-based Maximus Inc. secured a 10-year,

$324-million contract from the B.C. government to take over administration

of B.C.'s PharmaCare and Medical Services Plan programs.

- EDS also has a contract to provide the system to manage Canada's

controversial gun registry and received payments totalling $165 million from

1997-98 to Dec. 31, 2003. Roughly two million gun owners have been licensed

and close to seven million firearms registered.

Author: poneil@canada.com

Full story at:

http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=ae99b08b-0991-429bb67f564f526e02c6