Conservatives call for investigation into government data breaches that may have put Afghans in danger
CBC
The Conservatives have written to Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien to complain about a pattern of data breaches at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), CBC News has learned.
The complaint is in response to a string of misdirected emails last month that may have exposed hundreds of vulnerable Afghans to danger.
"The ramifications of this mistake have life-threatening consequences. This inexcusable data breach contained information about names, and in some cases, faces, of Afghans seeking refuge from a Taliban controlled Afghanistan, putting their lives in great danger," wrote Conservative immigration critic Jasraj Singh Hallan.
"It is imperative that an investigation be conducted into this alarming data breach, which challenges the credibility of the assertion made by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada that they maintain 'technological safeguards [to] ensure that client information is collected, stored and transmitted securely using encryption.'"
IRCC apologized for the leak to "several hundred" Afghans who had applied for visas. The leak took place after the Trudeau government promised it would accept 40,000 Afghans at risk because of their previous work as rights advocates, journalists, or members of the judiciary, or because they belong to religious and ethnic minorities targeted by the fundamentalist Taliban.
But the apology came in the form of a letter sent privately to those directly affected and signed by a public servant — IRCC director of client experience Anne Turmel.
"I offer you our sincere apology for our mistake and our assurance that we will do everything possible to ensure that it is not repeated," said the letter.
A similar leak by the U.K. government that exposed a smaller number of Afghan visa applicants was followed by a public acknowledgement of the error, an apology in Parliament by the minister responsible, an internal investigation and at least one suspension.
CBC News spoke to one Toronto man whose sister's name was among those inadvertently leaked by IRCC on December 18. He said he was "very disappointed" with the government's handling of the matter.
"Of course, I am worried most for my sister," he said, "but not only her. Some of these people may not even be aware of this, and I'm concerned for them too, just as a human being."
The Conservatives say that the most recent leak, while more dangerous than most, is only the latest in a series of leaks that averaged over three a day from the beginning of 2020 to March 18, 2021.
In his letter, Hallan cites the IRCC's answer to an "Inquiry of Ministry" — an official request for information that MPs can present in the House of Commons.
"Earlier this year, when I asked the Immigration Minister if the IRCC or CBSA had been affected by privacy breaches, he stated that there had been none," Hallan wrote.
"In fact, 1,793 privacy breaches occurred between 2020 and the time of my question, one of which led to more than 30,000 individuals' personal data being released."
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