The following are a total of 10 letters I’ve written and/or copied to Rob Norris, Minister Responsible
for WCB. Included below is the 1 response I received from his office – 1 for 10... pretty good by SaskParty
standards.
(Note: If you have difficulty reading these letters, click on them to enlarge)
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
Following a May 2012 cabinet shuffle, Don Morgan became Minister Responsible for WCB. Those interested
in contacting him can do so at: minister.ae@gov.sk.ca
______________________
As indicated on the homepage
of this site, the first issue I raised with Labour Minister Rob Norris pertained to the corrupt manner in which WCB handled
my work injury claim:
Some 30 days later (and still no
response to the above), I also requested the Minister’s attention to privacy violations on the part of WCB:
Again, there was no response from the Minister with respects
to the above.
____________________________
It should be noted at this point that
for nearly 3 months, the Board/Chair at WCB had refused to respond to my letters concerning WCB's privacy violations.
In an attempt to garner a response, the following email was sent to various Labour organisations, Unions,
and Chambers of Commerce. Subsequently I copied this to the Board/Chair, as well as the Minister Responsible
for WCB:
Subject: Breach of Privacy (Att: SK Labour Standards)
Thomas Brown
1114-C Blackwood St. N.
Regina, SK. S4X 3E5
February 3, 2008
To Whom It May Concern:
Re: Breach of Privacy
I am writing you in regards
to serious privacy violations on the part of the Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board. As this type of breach
involves employers and employees alike, I believe it should be of concern to your administration.
As
evidenced in a recent letter tothe SK Privacy Commissioner (see link
below), WCB’s Solicitor/Privacy Officer has unquestionably breached the privacy of several individuals, on 2 separate
occasions. In both instances the personal financial information of several employees was disclosed to unauthorised third parties,
as well as the corporate financial information of an employer/WCB stakeholder.
I have contacted the Minister Responsible for WCB/Labour regarding these privacy breaches, as well as the Board
at WCB. Given these officials are mandated to uphold WCB legislation, I’ve insisted that charges be laid against WCB’s Solicitor/Privacy Officer pursuant
to section 171 of The Workers’ Compensation Act, which states:
(1)
Subject to sections 171.1 and 171.2, no officer of the board and no person authorized to make an inspection or inquiry under
this Act shall divulge or allow to be divulged, except in the performance of his duties or under the authority of the board,
any information obtained by him or that has come to his knowledge in connection with that
inspection or inquiry.
(2) Every person who contravenes
subsection (1) is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine of not more than $1,000.
To date, the aforementioned officials have neither acknowledged, nor addressed this matter. Given the Board at
WCB has been aware of this issue since midNovember of last year, it would appear they do not intend to enforce this legislated law.
One has to question the rationale for
such obvious privacy breaches, especially in light of the March 28, 2007 report of the SK Privacy Commissioner
concerning this issue. One must also question whether this unlawful practice will continue. Those with answers
to these questions evidently feel they are not accountable to individuals like myself. I believe they
are answerable to administrations such as yours however, and upon your review of these circumstances, I encourage you to contact
the officials listed below.
In closing, you will find copies of all correspondences
relating to this issue (including this one) posted on the Internet at:
Thank you for any
and all consideration you may give to this matter. Please know I would sincerely appreciate your thoughts and concerns
regarding the same.
Respectfully,
Thomas Brown
Cc:Mr. Peter Federko – CEO, Saskatchewan WCB
Tel:
787-7398
Mr. John Solomon – Chair, Saskatchewan WCB
Tel: 787-4379
Mr. Walter
Eberle – WCB Board Member (Employee Representative)
Tel: 787-4381
Ms. Karen
Smith – WCB Board Member (Employer Representative)
Tel: 787-4382
The Honourable Rob Norris – Minister Responsible
for WCB/Labour
Just shy of 2 months
from the date of my initial letter (Dec. 19/07), I finally received the following response from the Minister. Note: Not
only did he refuse to inquire into my injury claim, he refused to address the issue of WCB's privacy violations (he
simply referred me to the Board/Chair’s January 31, 2008 letter dismissing the matter):
Disgusted with the lack
of action/response regarding WCB's contravention of section 171(1), the following email letter was sent to various Board/government
officials:
Subject: Re: Sections 171(1) and 171(2) of the WCA
Thomas
Brown
1114-C Blackwood St. N.
Regina,
SK. S4X 3E5
February 20, 2008
To Whom It May Concern:
Re: Sections 171(1)
and 171(2) of The Workers’ Compensation Act, 1979 (WCA)
The following is further to the issue of WCB’s unauthorized disclosure
of employer/employee information, as it pertains to above legislation.
Given I have taken the necessary steps to have this issue remedied,
and appropriate action has not been taken by the WCB Solicitor, the Board/Chair at WCB, and the Minister Responsible
for WCB; the way is now clear for me to request a criminal investigation into this matter. With respects to the WCB Solicitor,
I am now also at liberty to file a formal complaint with The Law Society of Saskatchewan.
In the days to come I’ll be preparing a written statement regarding
this issue, which will be filed with both the RCMP, and The Law Society of Saskatchewan. This statement will show that
the aforementioned officials have disregarded their mandated duty to adhere to, and/or uphold WCB legislation/law (i.e.
sections 171(1) and 171(2) of the WCA). Furthermore it will show that the Board/Chair at WCB have neglected their “Duty
to Protect Confidential Information”, as specified in their Governance Policy. It is my understanding that such a policy
is the result of a Board decision, which carries the same weight as a Court of Queen's Bench decision.
Interested parties will find all relevant information concerning this issue
at:
As one might expect,
there was no response from the Minister regarding the above.
_________________________
By letter dated April
1, 2008 (below), I wrote the Premier regarding his government’s handling of this issue (or rather lack thereof). As
this involved the Minister Responsible for WCB, I copied it to his attention:
Neither the Minister,
nor the Premier responded to the above.
______________________
As indicated in the only
response received to date (Feb. 14/08 - above), the Minister claimed “There are no provisions in the Act that would permit the Minister to initiate an inquiry
or review of the decisions made on a claim.”When I learned there is in fact legislation giving him this
authority, I wrote him with the following:
Within a few days of
sending the above, I received a phone call the Minister's assistant requesting further clarification of my letter. Despite
the assistant's assurance that a written response would be forthcoming, I've received nothing to date.
_________________________
Below is 1 of 3 identical letters sent to the Board at WCB regarding
the unlawful disclosure of their (my co-worker’s) personal information. By fax dated April 28, 2008, I forwarded these
letters to the Minister requesting his immediate attention to them:
Neither the Minister, nor the Board
responded to the above.
____________________
As indicated on the homepage of this site,
on May 6th, 2008 I attended the WCB “Annual General Meeting” in Regina. During the Q & A portion of this stakeholder event, I raised the issue of WCB's privacy
violations with Chairman David Eberle. As per his suggestion, I wrote to arrange a private meeting
with Mr. Eberle and CEO Peter Federko in this respect. SubsequentIy I copied this letter to the Minister,
asking that he assist in ensuring such a meeting took place:
While I received nothing by way of an acknowledgement/response from the Minister, click here to review the Chairman's denial of my request.
_______________________
In a last ditch effort to obtain a response from the Minister regarding these matters, I once again wrote
him with the following:
Once again there was no response from either the Minister, or the Premier.
_______________________
Below
is the last correspondence sent to the Premier, which simply advised him of this website. As the Minister Responsible for
WCB was instrumental in the development of this site, it was also copied to his attention. I did not request a response
from either the Minister or the Premier, nor do I expect one.
UPDATE:
By email letter dated January 28th, 2009, I contacted 53 MLA’s regarding my difficulties
obtaining a response to my concerns (click here to view). This
resulted in a number of inquiries on my behalf, which in turn provoked a response from the Premier. Subsequently my concerns
were forwarded to Minister Norris who responded with the following:
Given this letter is essentially a carbon copy of his February 14th, 2008 response (above), a
response I’ve repeatedly taken issue with over the past year, I once again wrote Minister Norris with the following:
In an attempt to garner a response to the above, I once again wrote the Members of the Legislative Assembly
on March 5, 2009 (click here to view). To date, this
has yet to yield a response from Minister Norris.
Care to comment on this ministry's handling of these issues? As indicated at the top of this page, the Honourable
Don Morgan is now Minister
Responsible for WCB. You can email him at: minister.ae@gov.sk.ca