At least three other people claim to have received envelopes containing passports and highly confidential documents that did not belong to them following our reporting last week, which demonstrates that this is a real scourge that we only knows the “tip of the iceberg”.
• Read also: Passport Canada blunders again and sends passports to the wrong address
At least that is what the Conservative MP for Portneuf–Jacques-Cartier, Joël Godin, thinks.
A citizen of his riding recently sent him four envelopes containing passports and confidential documents belonging to Canadians from different provinces.
This same citizen had previously received another similar envelope, this time belonging to a lady from British Columbia.
Significant flaw
“There is a major flaw in the system and we understand that it is not [un problème] unique and exceptional. It is probably not all the people who were victims who bothered to call,” laments Mr. Godin.
The member also questioned the minister responsible for the file, Karina Gould, in the House last week.
She said that the situation was “unacceptable” and that an investigation would be initiated to “ensure that this will not happen again”, indicated the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development.
However, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has already carried out two investigations with Passport Canada, in particular for passports sent to the wrong people. But, it is clear that the problem is far from resolved. (see other text).
“It’s absurd”
In the past few days, three people have contacted Le Journal, denouncing having experienced a similar situation. Either way, they believed in a single error.
Last week, a citizen of Lévis, who had made her passport renewal application a few weeks earlier by mail, was surprised to receive the original birth certificate of a man from Ontario.
“It was through all my documents. It doesn’t make sense, it’s a rookie mistake,” says Claudia Corriveau, a 44-year-old special education teacher.
“Reading the report [du Journal] I found it absurd and a few days later, it happens to me,” she says. Since her renewal application had been refused due to the lack of a signature, Ms. Corriveau returned all her documents, including the lost birth certificate, to Service Canada.
Twice instead of once
A citizen of Sainte-Thérèse has also received a passport that did not belong to him, twice, in recent months, even though he had alerted the federal agency the first time.
The latter, who prefers not to be identified, claims to have received the passport of a lady whose existence he does not know. As in all cases listed by The newspaperthe address on the envelope was his.
2016
- Lost: 206
- Mis-sent: 18
2017
- Lost: 321
- Wrongly sent: 9
2018
- Lost: 281
- Mis-sent: 35
2019
- Lost: 247
- Wrongly sent: 2
➞ Total lost: 1055
➞ Total incorrectly sent: 64
*Source: Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
A story that repeats itself…again
Passport Canada is not making its first mistakes of sending confidential documents to the wrong people, as the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has already investigated the matter in 2008 and 2021.
In both reports, the federal institution makes its mea culpa and confirms, at the end of the investigation, that it has implemented measures to prevent the problem from recurring.
However, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada claims not to be able to confirm what means have been taken by the federal body, judging these breaches as “substantial” invasions of privacy.
“[…] it is not clear how the post-event analysis performed by the IRCC Passport Program [Immigration, Réfugiés et Citoyenneté Canada (IRCC), responsable du Programme de passeport] informed and how the results are disseminated to relevant stakeholders to reduce the risk of recurrence of these unauthorized communications.
Moreover, the Office of the Commissioner also criticizes the fact that Passport Canada takes an average of four months before informing the people affected by its errors.
Questioned by Le Journal, the spokesperson for Passport Canada was content to say that the staff had to take mandatory training on the protection of personal information.
Human errors
“[…] Staff are regularly reminded that they must exercise due diligence when handling clients’ personal information,” said spokesperson Samuelle Carbonneau.
According to the Office of the Commissioner’s spokesperson, 463 privacy breach reports were made in 2021-2022. Of this number, 93% of them were linked to human error, specifies Vito Pilieci.