Photo by Photo Submitted
FORMALLY SWORN IN – Jason Pedlar (left) was sworn in as the new Yukon Ombudsman on Friday morning in the legislature. With him are Speaker Jeremy Harper (centre) and Dan Cable, the clerk of the legislature. Photo by GOVERNMENT OF YUKON /JUSTIN KENNEDY
The Yukon has a new Ombudsman, Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC), and Public Interest Disclosure Commissioner (PIDC).
The Yukon has a new Ombudsman, Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC), and Public Interest Disclosure Commissioner (PIDC).
Jason Pedlar was sworn into the position for five years in the Yukon legislature on Friday morning.
Pedlar becomes the first person to be appointed as an officer of the Yukon Legislative Assembly from within their office. He is an independent officer of the chamber.
He has worked at the Office of the Ombudsman, IPC and PIDC since October 2018, after relocating from Ontario.
He was first the director of intake and informal case resolution, then became the Deputy Ombudsman, IPC and PIDC starting in July 2021.
“I am honoured that the Yukon Legislative Assembly and Yukoners have placed their trust in me,” said Pedlar.
“Over the coming months, I hope to meet with lawmakers to highlight our work and answer any questions on my vision for our office.
“As well, I intend to meet with citizens of Yukon communities to hear about their concerns and to inform them of the services we provide.”
The mandate for Pedlar’s office is set out in four pieces of legislation: the Ombudsman Act, the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (ATIPPA), the Health Information Privacy and Management Act (HIPMA) and the Public Interest Disclosure of Wrongdoing Act (PIDWA).
“My hope is that the authorities, public bodies, custodians and public entities set out under all four pieces of legislation will see our office as a resource they can use to improve their processes and ensure they are meeting the needs of Yukoners,” added Pedlar.
On July 13, an all-party committee of the legislature’s Members’ Services Board recommended Pedlar’s appointment. The committee’s recommendation was confirmed by the legislature last Tuesday.
In July, Diane McLeod-McKay resigned from the jobs to become the Information and Privacy Commissioner for Alberta.
“I would like to thank my predecessor for her commitment and leadership,” said Pedlar.
“I look forward to building on the work she led and continuing to work to benefit Yukoners under all of our office’s mandates.”
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Comments (8)
Up 8 Down 15
BnR on Oct 18, 2022 at 9:30 am
Lots of work to do….
Your lengthy diatribe makes a lot of assumptions without taking into account one glaring piece of missing formation: the date on this data.
This USB drive could have been floating about for years, and it would be simplicity itself for whoever viewed the spreadsheet (assuming it’s an Excel) and view the dates. If the current gov needs to take responsibility, well, shouldn’t whoever was in government at the time this data went missing also have to bear responsibility?
Nobody’s released the dates on Thai data.
Up 20 Down 10
Someone please fall on a sword… Make it a dog pile on Oct 17, 2022 at 9:35 pm
In support of Lots of work to do on Oct 17, 2022 at 3:04 pm:
Seriously people. The thought there are people who are giving a thumbs down to this post are incredibly ignorant. The concerns raised in this post are an accurate assessment of the law and how it should be applied.
The whole department should be mandated to take ATIPP/HIPMA training… Oh, wait a minute, they already have been - NO Excuse!
For the minister… Oh, wait a minute, they already did that but Silver said - NO! WTF kind of organization are you people running?
Everyone from the manager to the Minister should be shyt-canned! There is just way too much gross incompetence. If it’s good enough for Hockey Canada it’s more than good enough for this level ineptitude - Fire all management - Start with the Regional management structure, then the F&CS management, the directors, the ADM, the DM, and that Dalmatian killing wannabe minister!
Kate - This is all on you now. This is bad.
Up 14 Down 12
bonanzajoe on Oct 17, 2022 at 8:31 pm
Another Ombudsman? What did the last one do? And what will this one do for me, for instance? And as a side note, with all the politically correctness the Libs like to create, why is there still the word "man" on the end. Thought the Libs would have seen this one by now. Must have slipped through the cracks. Inform JT and he may rename it Ombudskind. Wouldn't change the useless purpose of the position I'm sure.
Up 16 Down 12
Juniper Jackson on Oct 17, 2022 at 7:53 pm
Another Liberal in this already stacked deck. The Liberal dictatorship scores a win.. By stacking Liberals in all the key positions, even when the Cons take over at the top, all of the information and support positions, including DMs and ADMs will be subversive, undermining and fighting the new government.
Up 11 Down 9
What’s in a name? on Oct 17, 2022 at 7:34 pm
Pedlar? Hahaha. I didn’t think there was anything left to strip of the toothless, arthritic old gelding of Ombudsman. Meet the new boss…
Up 16 Down 1
It goes on and on… on Oct 17, 2022 at 5:45 pm
In response to Lots of work to do on Oct 17, 2022 at 3:04 pm:
You are absolutely correct! The ATIPP and HIPMA protections inform that all identifiable information about a client or service user is the property of the person who the information is about. This is EXPLICITLY worded in the Acts.
I have had this very same conversation with many governmental “agents”. There is a sickening and ongoing breach of these Acts by multiple departments. Geesus - This literally is tip of the iceberg from Justice, to H&SS, and on and on…
These are big issues that are swept under the rug. Here’s a big one related to the under educated HR reps. They routinely ask interviewees to provide examples of situations from their work to assess prospective candidates. Often, they will have external FN reps as part of the panel.
The candidate who points out the lawful requirements of ATIPP and HIPMA are told, it’s okay we are HR reps and are sworn to secrecy. It does not matter - The owner of the information is the one who gets to decide whether that information - even anonymized can be shared.
These obligations are even more important in smaller jurisdictions because of all the dual relationships and cross overs that occur. Individuals are easily identified even information is obscured. It’s absolute BS!
Then there is the idea that under ATIPP and HIPMA the subject of the file is supposed to know exactly what is on the file - H&SS and Justice are infamous for having secret/undisclosed information on their files. And although they are not supposed to they gossip between one another.
And who among us has not been in lie at a grocery store or liquor store to overhear government employees talking shop about people and situations - Coded and uncoded. You used to be able to sit in the Java connection and listen to government employees and lawyers talk etc talk about cases, clients and on and on.
It’s a hot mess of infidelity to any ethical standard.
Up 25 Down 9
Lots of work to do on Oct 17, 2022 at 3:04 pm
The data breach from Health and Social Services reported by CBC should be an interesting first investigation to welcome the new Ombudsman. Although the investigation is likely to focus on where the drive came from and how it ended up in the pawn shop, that is a short-sighted distraction.
Key points from my perspective that I’d like Yukoners to be aware of and the investigation to focus on are that:
a) The personal information contained therein will have a classification. As these are not government secrets, they won’t be in the Secret category, but rather the Confidential or Protected category. That category is still required to be protected by the stewards of those documents including, and in particular, Yukon Health and Social Services overseen by the Hon. Tracy-Anne McPhee.
b) Regardless of where it was found, the critical failure is that the documents were placed on an open drive. Simple steps like encryption or just password protection weren’t bothered with. That in and of itself is a violation of the government’s own laws and policy.
c) The news release on HSS website states as follows: “confidential government records that belong to the Department of Health and Social Services”. Actually, none of the work product of the department belongs to the department. All of that belongs to you, the tax payer. By law, the department is only a steward of those documents. That this government’s communication staff at the cabinet level is not aware of the distinction speaks volumes about the ignorance and attitude of senior leadership.
d) That there are many internal and external transfers of documents from Yukon government offices done wholly against policy and law. It’s the norm. Even transfers of information between the government and, say, the law office of the lawyer who’s client is opposing government for some reason are transmitted in the open. There’s no law office in the territory that offers encrypted communication or data storage, even for businesses with a lot at risk as Intellectual Property (designs, business plans, proposals and contracts). Those are court officers you’d think would understand their own best interest is served by protecting their client’s data. Sadly, no. The government leads on these issues and must be held to a standard that sends a message to all stewards of data in this jurisdiction that shrugging their shoulders just isn’t good enough anymore.
e) That if the loss of the thumb drive was known to the last legitimate holder of the device and they failed to report the loss, that’s a huge problem at the HR level around honesty and fitness for the job.
f) That if the device was just thrown away without first being erased and written over securely, then a significant education program must be in enacted within government to educate our data stewards regarding the basic functionality of these devices.
b) That Canada’s national security apparatus warned all Canadian governments, businesses and citizens about cyber security and increasing data breaches across the country tied to both organized crime and state-sponsored actors. That incompetent and overlooked data privacy systems far outnumber secure systems. That was two years ago. There’s no excuse.
Hopefully the timing of this change has nothing to do with a Liberal appointee being put in place to lift the rug and let them sweep. Would fit the pattern though.
Up 33 Down 16
Dirty Laundry on Oct 17, 2022 at 2:52 pm
Appointed from within… LOL!
Hopefully s/he/they will not be the Pedlar of more Liberal/NDP shyt!
Would it not be ironic if they complied and cooperated more with Pedlar than they did with McKay?
How likely is it that this Pedlar of virtue will crack open the safe of governmental corruption?