Thursday, November 21, 2013

Government Bureaucrats and Confidentiality

In a nutshell ... they don't care.

Health Canada ...

The folks at Health Canada who run the "Marijuana Medical Access Program" look like they may be sampling the goods. Putting out information letters to 40,000 program clients with the program department identified on the envelope addressing.

The program participants are guaranteed anonymity because it is medical service.

An excerpt:

This week the 50-something medical marijuana grower and patient was stunned when she received an envelope in the mail from Health Canada with her name, address and the printing for anyone to see: "Marihuana Medical Access Program."
"I cried at my mailbox when I saw that, it was so upsetting. I have never been so embarrassed. I was in a panic,"

Health Canada confirmed to QMI Agency Thursday the woman was one of 40,000 to receive informational letters on upcoming changes to the Marihuana Medical Access Program.
In a statement, George Da Pont, deputy minister of Health, said he had been advised that because of an administrative error the envelopes were labelled to indicate they were sent by the medical marijuana program. "This is not standard Health Canada practice. On behalf of Health Canada, I deeply regret this administrative error. Health Canada is taking steps to ensure this does not happen again." 

The woman is concerned that someone who saw the envelope at the small post office could talk about it to others, making her and her husband a target for thieves looking for marijuana or a subject for public ridicule.

"They used to be discrete. I believe with the program ending they don't really care anymore. They put us up as a target," she said.


OMMAG

Labels:

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home