The following are letters I’ve
written and/or copied to the Premier. To date, I've received no response whatsoever from his office. (UPDATED
below)
If you or someone you know has
received similar treatment from this official, please contact me in this respect. I'm compiling a list of such instances and
plan to present these to the Premier's office, the opposition, as well as the media.
(Note: If you have difficulty
reading the following letters, click on them to enlarge)
_________________________
For nearly 3 months the Board/Chair at WCB had refused to respond to my letters concerning WCB's privacy violations.
In an effort to garner a response, the following email was sent to various Labour Organisations, Unions, and Chambers
of Commerce. Subsequently I copied this letter to
the Board/ Chair, as well as the Premier:
Subject: Breach of Privacy (Att: Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce)
Thomas Brown
1114-C Blackwood St. N.
Regina, SK. S4X 3E5
January 31st,
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 ofThe 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
Other than an automated message
that the above was received, there was no response from the Premier with respects to it.
________________________
Disgusted with the lack of
action/response regarding WCB's contravention of section 171(1), the following letter was sent to various WCB/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:
Once again, there was no response
from the Premier regarding the above.
_________________________
As indicated on the homepage
of this site, in March of 2008 the SaskParty announced they had fired WCB Chair John Solomon. In their press release they
indicated that Solomon was fired without cause, and would receive an appropriate severance package.
It's important to note that
before his untimely departure, Mr. Solomon had dismissed my concerns of privacy violations, effectively covering these
up. Subsequently I wrote the Premier in this respect:
Yet again, there was no response from the Premier with respects to the above. (click here to view the statement that accompanied the abovementioned letter)
___________________
By letter dated April 1, 2008 (below), I wrote the Premier regarding
his government’s handling of this issue (or rather lack thereof). This letter was subsequently copied to his
Ministers, as well as the opposition's critics:
Once again there was neither an acknowledgement, nor a response from the Premier regarding the above. For
that matter there was no response from his Ministers.
____________________
In the 1 (and only) response I received
from the Minister Responsible for WCB, the Minister had 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 this information, and subsequently copied it to the Premier:
Once again there was no acknowledgement/response from either the Premier, or the Minister Responsible for WCB.
_______________________
Further to the issue of WCB's privacy violations, the
following correspondence was also sent to the Premier. Along with this correspondence were 3 identical letters sent to the Board at WCB regarding the inappropriate/unlawful disclosure of their (my co-worker’s) personal information:
As per usual, there was no response from the Premier regarding 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 Premier, asking that he assist in ensuring such a meeting took place:
While I received nothing by way of an acknowledgement/ response from the Premier, click here to review the Chairman's denial of my request.
_____________________
In a last-ditch effort to garner a response from the Minister Responsible for WCB regarding the
issues I raised, the following was sent to his attention, and copied to the Premier:
Neither the Premier, nor the Minister
Responsible for WCB responded to the above.
____________________
Below is the last correspondence
sent to the Premier, which simply advised him of this website. I did not request a response from his office, 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 the following response from Premier Wall:
In the above letter Premier Wall implied that he already responded to
my concerns. Given I’ve received no correspondence whatsoever from his office, and all of my letters attest to this,
clearly this implication is “damage control” on the part of his office.
In the following letter I took issue with this, along
with the fact that he’s only partially addressed my concerns:
In an attempt to garner a response to the above, I once again wrote the Members of the Legislative Assembly.
Readers will find my March 5, 2009 letter here. Additionally, you will find the abovementioned
correspondence with Minister Norris at the foot of his page here.
________________________
Below is a letter I recently received from the Premier’s office, which was copied to the SaskParty
Caucus, as well as that of the Opposition. While it was obviously sent as a further means of “damage control”,
it has clearly backfired in that respect.
What this letter in fact proves is that Mr. Wall, “as Premier”, outright ignored my correspondences for
a full year. This of course has been the crux of my grievance with his office; that and the fact he refuses to be accountable
for the actions of his ministers. Clearly the Premier’s office has much to learn about damage control:
To date, the only responses I’ve received from the Premier are those garnered by the Members of the
Legislative Assembly; responses that were designed purely to save face. The fact remains that he continues to evade my concerns
regarding his government.
By letter dated March 10, 2009 I contacted the Members of the Legislative Assembly yet again (click here to view). This
resulted in several responses, most of which are from oppositional MLA’s. It remains to be seen whether their inquiries
will yield an appropriate response from the Premier.
Care to comment on the Premier's handling of these issues? Email him at: premier@gov.sk.ca
