By Lorne Gunter, Toronto Sun, February 12, 2022
To be fair, they haven’t been tracking you, specifically. But at times they have gathered “anonymized” data on all 33 million Canadian cellphone users.
The Sun’s Lorne Gunter writes that although PHAC’s “data scoop” can’t be linked to our individual accounts, the data does permit authorities knowledge of our movements and whether or not we have been adhering to lockdown restrictions.
The program only became public after Blacklock’s Reporter learned PHAC was looking to secure a contract to continue surveilling Canadians’ movements for another five years. Five years?
“This is a threat to Canadian democracy on a far more serious level than anything the Freedom Convoy truckers are allegedly doing,” writes Gunter.
Ann Cavoukian, Ontario’s former privacy commissioner for three terms, told the House of Commons ethics committee last week that she had never seen a breach of privacy on this scale.
“The Public Health Agency cannot just decide to do that without telling anybody. That’s what I object to the most, the total lack of transparency.”
No government department or agency – state of emergency or not – can just decide for itself to monitor the movements of Canadians, writes Gunter. The PHAC privacy outrage he says will further erode public trust. Meanwhile, he adds, the Trudeau administration doesn’t seem to grasp that this “massive intrusion” is wrong on principle.
Continue to the publisher’s website for the complete opinion piece by Lorne Gunter