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Home > News > Vol. XLVIII No. 3, July 2004

President's Perspective

Privacy vs. Safety

By law, physicians must provide specific patient information related to safety. Federal firearms legislation requires them to fill out a form for patients applying for a gun licence. Provinces and territories require them to report a patient’s inability to drive to the Ministry of Transportation. In both cases, disclosure is mandatory whether or not the individual in question agrees.

The federal government’s new Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act came into effect on January 1, 2004. The Act assures your information can be used only for purposes to which you have consented. It also recognizes the need for law enforcement agencies to collect, use and disclose personal information without the consent of the concerned individuals.

The Canada Safety Council asked Canada’s Privacy Commissioner to clarify safety-related use of personal information. The Commissioner said the new Act allows an organization to disclose information without the knowledge or consent of an individual if the disclosure is required by law.

Unfortunately, laws do not cover all situations where safety may conflict with privacy.

The confidentiality of patients being treated for injuries is a case in point. The medical community has been debating whether emergency departments should give police the names of individuals treated for gunshot wounds.¹ A British Columbia study of intoxicated drivers treated in an emergency department for treatment of crash-related injuries found that most of those whose BACs exceeded the criminal limit were not convicted.²

Anti-terrorism legislation has made many Canadians think about whether safety should take priority over privacy. The issue must be addressed at all levels — and it won’t be easy.

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Safety Canada July 2004

¹. Commentary. Canadian Medical Association Journal, April 13, 2004; 170 (8).
H. Ovens. Why mandatory reporting of gunshot wounds is necessary.
M. Pauls & J. Downie. Why mandatory reporting of gunshot wounds is a bad idea.

². R. Purssell et al. Proportion of injured alcohol-impaired drivers subsequently convicted of an impaired driving criminal code offence in British Columbia. Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine, Vol. 6, No. 2, March 2004.