XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, ont.politics   
   From: {~_~}@nyet.ca   
      
   . . . Next time you think about crossing the border into the U.S. for   
   milk, cheaper gas, or even a Jehovah's Witness gathering.     (>_<)   
   We can't register long guns, but we sure as hell have the time and money   
   to register Canadians.   
      
   CPIC has a new name:    Canadians' Psychiatric Information Checklist   
   _______________________________________   
   CBC News Posted: Apr 14, 2014   
      
   Canadians' mental-health info routinely shared with FBI, U.S. customs   
      
   Privacy commissioner Ann Cavoukian found attempted suicide calls   
   uploaded to international database   
      
      
      
   Ontario’s privacy commissioner has discovered that the mental-health   
   information of some Canadians is accessible to the FBI and U.S. Customs   
   and Border Patrol.   
      
   Ann Cavoukian said Monday that some Ontario police services routinely   
   uploaded attempted suicide calls to the Canadian Police Information   
   Centre (CPIC), to which U.S. border guards and the FBI have access.   
      
   Cavoukian began investigating how U.S. law enforcement had access to   
   such personal information after last fall's news that some Canadian   
   travellers with a history of mental-health issues had been denied entry   
   into the U.S.   
      
   Ellen Richardson was turned away at Toronto's Pearson airport by U.S.   
   customs agents because she was hospitalized in June 2012 for clinical   
   depression.   
      
   She attempted suicide in 2001 by jumping off a bridge, leaving her a   
   paraplegic.  But her mental health has since improved with medication   
   and professional help from a psychiatrist, she said.   
      
      
   Ontario privacy commissioner Ann Cavoukian began investigating how U.S.   
   law enforcement had access to Canadians' mental-health information after   
   last fall's news that some Canadian travellers with a history of   
   mental-health issues had been denied entry into the U.S.   
      
   The border agent cited the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, which   
   denies entry to people who have had a physical or mental disorder that   
   may pose a "threat to the property, safety or welfare" of themselves or   
   others, she said.   
      
   The privacy commission said she was “deeply concerned” by the incident.   
      
   “I found it so unnerving to think about the embarrassment and   
   humiliation a person would feel,” Cavoukian said. “I needed to find out   
   exactly how such sensitive and personal info was ending up in the hands   
   of U.S. border officials.”   
      
   Cavoukian spoke with police departments from Toronto, Waterloo, Hamilton   
   and Ottawa. She also spoke with the OPP.   
      
   She said only the Toronto Police Service “automatically” uploads all   
   attempted suicide and suicide calls “across the board" to CPIC.   
      
   Cavoukian found that it is “not mandatory” for police services to upload   
   such calls.   
      
   “This is entirely at the discretion of the police service involved,”   
   Cavoukian said.   
      
   She said there is no legal requirement that suicide attempts be entered   
   into the Canadian Police Information Centre database and claimed it was   
   the policy of the Toronto Police Service.   
      
   But Toronto police spokesman Mark Pugash says that's just not so, and   
   officers do use discretion about which cases are uploaded to the database.   
      
   However, Pugash also says the force feels the information is important   
   for officers to have, and if Cavoukian doesn't want it shared with   
   American officials, then she should ask the Mounties to change who has   
   access to what data.   
      
   Cavoukian said the information is then loaded into the CPIC database,   
   which is available to U.S. border guards through a co-operation   
   agreement between the RCMP and the FBI.   
      
   She said Hamilton, Waterloo, Ont., Ottawa and the OPP “all exercise   
   discretion in doing this.”   
   Personal health info should be protected, CAMH says   
      
   Cavoukian found that 19,000 “mental health episodes" have been uploaded   
   to CPIC.   
      
   "The untenable practice of automatic or blanket sharing of police   
   information related to suicide threats or attempts simply cannot   
   continue," Cavoukian said.   
      
   "The record of a person's suicide attempt is personal health   
   information, that should be protected to the greatest extent possible,"   
   said Dr. Peter Voore, medical director at the Centre for Addiction and   
   Mental Health (CAMH).   
      
   “I am calling upon all police services across Ontario to immediately   
   cease the practice of automatically uploading or disclosing personal   
   information relating to threats of suicide or attempted suicide via   
   CPIC, by default,” Cavoukian said.   
      
   She said suicide attempts should only be uploaded to CPIC if:   
      
        They involved the threat of serious violence or harm, or the actual   
   use of serious violence or harm directed at other individuals.   
        They could reasonably be considered to be an intentional   
   provocation of a lethal response by police.   
        The individual involved had a history of serious violence or harm   
   to others.   
        The suicide attempt occurred while an individual was in police   
   custody.   
      
   "CAMH is in full agreement with the findings of this investigation and   
   we strongly support the recommendations that the commissioner has put   
   forward," Voore said.   
   ________________________________   
      
        Canadian woman refused U.S. entry because of depression   
        Canadians with mental illnesses denied U.S. entry   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)