Health care worker's privacy breached, but premier's office off the hook
Whistleblower Peter Bowden was suspended, then fired by Saskatoon Health Region
Saskatchewan's privacy commissioner says there were privacy breaches in the case of a Saskatoon health care aide whose private information ended up with the Premier's office. But the premier's office itself is off the hook.
That's because the staff with premier's office — the ministry also known as executive council — are not covered under the current protection of privacy legislation, commissioner Ron Kruzeniski said Tuesday in a report.
Premier Brad Wall says he will apologize to Peter Bowden, anyway.
Bowden is a former care aide at Oliver Lodge in Saskatoon who came to the legislature in March to complain about the care he said some of the seniors were receiving at the home.
The following month, he was suspended with pay. Last week, it was announced that Bowden had been fired.
Bowden believed he had been suspended for speaking out and complained to the privacy commissioner.
Kruzeniski looked into information about Bowden that had flowed between the Oliver Lodge, the health ministry, the Saskatoon health region, and the Premier's office.
Top aide emails info to reporters
Shortly after Bowden's suspension, Kathy Young, the premier's chief of operations and communications, sent an email to some members of the media saying Bowden had been disciplined for incidents related to patient care and harassment of other staff and residents — not for being a whistleblower.
Kruzeniski said the health region and the health ministry broke the rules, but the law doesn't apply to staff with the premier's office.
He said the law should be amended to cover that gap. Another idea worth considering is a code of conduct to cover the Premier's office with respect to privacy, Kruzeniski said.
Kruzeniski, whose report referred to Bowden but did not name him, said the health ministry and the Saskatoon health region should apologize to him.
Premier Brad Wall said Monday he is confident that Bowden was fired for unrelated reasons, and not for speaking out about senior care.
Wall accepts recommendations
In a news release today, Wall said his office could have been more "circumspect" in how it handled information about the health care employee, and he accepts the privacy commissioner's recommendations.
"I think the commissioner's recommendations make sense and are measures our government can support," Wall said.
"While I continue to believe that the disclosure of some information by my office was in the public interest, these events have shown there is a lack of clarity and understanding when it comes to when and how personal information can be collected and disclosed. We will be working to improve that clarity and understanding through the commissioner's recommendations."