TORONTO – Ontario’s privacy watchdog is probing reports that private health information is being shared with U.S. border services, saying it’s a matter “of grave concern” to her.
Her office “will investigate the matter and ensure that the personal health information of Ontarians is not being compromised by any organizations under my jurisdiction,” Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian said in an email to Ontario’s New Democrats, who requested her help.
Cavoukian added that she’s already contacted the Health Ministry to confirm that no personal health details are being provided to U.S. border services.
NDP health critic France Gelinas said she’s been contacted by three people who have been denied entry to the U.S. based on their personal health history.
One woman she spoke to, Ellen Richardson, has gone public with her story, saying she was turned away at Toronto’s Pearson airport by a U.S. customs agent because she was hospitalized in 2012 for clinical depression.
Another person Gelinas spoke to told her that they’ve been turned away at the border over a physical ailment that had nothing to do with mental health, she said.
She wouldn’t provide any details to protect the person’s privacy, but Gelinas said she was told that the border agent in that case also mentioned a fairly recent, specific medical episode that happened in an Ontario hospital.
Gelinas said at first she tried to find some explanation for why U.S. authorities might have the information, such as a police report. She asked many questions, but nothing seemed to explain how the Department of Homeland Security got the information.
One person was denied entry three times, she said.
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“The amount of their personal information that is spit back at them is astonishing,” she said.
“I have no idea how this could happen, but it did. I believe those people. They have given me physical, tangible proof that this happened.”
A person’s medical history must remain confidential, she said. To hear that specific details of a person’s medical history is being shared with a foreign government is “extremely alarming.”
Health Minister Deb Matthews owes Ontarians an explanation, Gelinas added.
U.S. authorities don’t have access to medical or other health records for Ontarians travelling to the United States, said Samantha Grant, a spokeswoman for Matthews.
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