Ethics committee votes for data hearing, Health Canada amends RFP

OTTAWA–The House of Commons Ethics committee voted unanimously Thursday to call Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam and Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos to explain why the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) that would track the mobility of Canadians. In a surprise move, the agency amended the RFP to extend the deadline for filing. The original deadline was Jan. 21; that has now been extended Feb. 4. Those dates are important since the first deadline was before Parliament reconvenes on Jan. 31 which would not have permitted MPs to ask about the move in Question Period. The motion to call the witnesses came from Conservative MP John Brassard who was part of a quartet of Opposition members who had requested the special sitting of the committee. Liberal MPs made an amendment to strike the name of former Health Minister Patty Hajdu from the list of witnesses; with that adopted, the main motion passed without a dissenting vote from the 11 members. In addition to Tam and Duclos, the committee will call any other witnesses that MPs may suggest. Brassard was happy at the outcome of his call for an emergency session. “Since this story came to pass, there’s been significant interest right across the country on it,” the Barrie, Ontario MP told The Wire Report in an interview. “There’s still some significant concerns, not the least of which is the secrecy with which this happened.” He pointed to other examples of government intrusion into the privacy of Canadians including Statistics Canada’s accessing the bank records of half a million people and perceived limits on free speech contained in Bill C-10, an act to amend the Broadcasting Act and Bill C-11, the online harms bill. Both pieces of legislation died on the Order Paper when the September election was called. “There really is a perception, real or otherwise, of significant government overreach not just here but also around the world as a result of this pandemic and really inserting themselves into the privacy not just of Canadians but people in general. So for a lot of people it’s a line in the sand’” Brassard said. He was also dubious about the timing of the extension of the RFP. The change was announced on Wednesday, one day before the committee held its special session. “I think they were trying to be tactical by moving it off and perhaps saying ‘well you know we’ve extended it to Feb. 4 so now we have time’. That causes concerns to me that they’re not confident in the RFP process completing–the optics, look this is a government that takes a whack-a-mole approach to political problems every time they punch things here, they’ve got a political problem, they try to rectify it. They’ve got a political problem here and they tried to push the RFP off in their view, I believe, to solve a political problem but it raises more questions as a result of them doing this.” Bloc Québécois MP René Villemure, a vice-chair of the committee, put forward a motion that would see PHAC suspend the RFP until the Parliamentarians have time to study the issue. The meeting adjourned with his motion carried over to the next session, which will be called at the discretion of chair Pat Kelly. Liberal vice-chair Iqra Khalid wants Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien called as a witness to ascertain when he first knew about PHAC’s plans. The agency says it consulted with him but did not provide any timeline. –Reporting by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca

Ethics committee votes for data hearing, Health Canada amends RFP

News | January 13, 2022

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Ethics committee votes for data hearing, Health Canada amends RFP

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