Jun 4, 2013

Acting Manitoba Ombudsman Mel Holley has released the Ombudsman's Annual Report under The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) and The Personal Health Information Act (PHIA) for the calendar year 2012. The report provides an overview of the activities, investigations, and audits of the office's Access and Privacy Division.

"This report demonstrates the variety of work undertaken by my office in 2012, from the different kinds of outcomes that were achieved as a result of complaint investigations, to reviewing reports about privacy breaches, to the significant efforts we made to inform people and public bodies about their access and privacy rights and obligations," said Holley. "In an age when the development and implementation of policies around privacy protection struggles to keep pace with changes in technology, our role as it relates to commenting on the access and privacy implications of proposed initiatives and programs is more important than ever. The need for privacy protection is a message we will continue to deliver."  

Highlights of the 2012 Annual Report under FIPPA and PHIA include:

• A case where a patient's privacy at CancerCare Manitoba was breached when an employee, not involved in the patient's care, snooped in the patient's electronic medical record. As a result of this case, a bill was introduced in the Legislature to amend PHIA to ensure that sanctions are the same for unauthorized disclosure, use, or viewing of personal health information.
• A case that marked the first time we considered the provisions of FIPPA that allow a public body to disregard access requests in specific circumstances. In this case, the Town of Neepawa disregarded applications for access that it considered repetitious and vexatious. We agreed that the decision to disregard the access requests was authorized under FIPPA.
• A summary of an audit report of the Winnipeg Police Service under our FIPPA Access Practices Assessment program, as well as highlights from the City of Winnipeg's reassessment.
• An overview of the numerous ways in which we provided information about access and privacy rights, obligations of public bodies under FIPPA and trustees under PHIA, and about our role under both Acts.
• Detailed statistics that show the disposition of the 313 access and privacy cases investigated in 2012 under parts 4 and 5 of FIPPA and PHIA. 

The 2012 Annual Report under The Ombudsman Act and The Public Interest Disclosure (Whistleblower Protection) Act was released on May 30, 2013.