The Canadian Civil Liberties Association and other advocacy groups are sounding the alarm about the legality of the province providing first responders, including police, with the names, addresses and dates of birth of people who have tested positive for COVID-19.

The CCLA suggested in a tweet that police “quietly got access” to this new database last week. The government announced on April 6 it was making the information available “to protect Ontario’s first responders and stop the spread of COVID-19.”

“We appreciate that first responders are on the front lines of a public health crisis. Protecting the health of communities and first responders is rightly a priority,” says a letter sent by the CCLA and others addressed to Solicitor General Sylvia Jones.

“Providing personal health information directly to law enforcement, however, is an extraordinary invasion of privacy. Such a measure should only be taken when clearly authorized by law and absolutely necessary given the particular circumstances.”

The letter is also signed by the HIV and AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario, the Black Legal Action Centre and Aboriginal Legal Services.

The Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario was opposed to the emergency order authorizing the disclosure.

“The government did not effectively persuade my office that the regulation, which is highly invasive from a privacy perspective, was necessary to reduce the risk of harm and enhance public safety,” Privacy Commissioner Brian Beamish confirmed in an emailed statement.

He added he has learned incomplete or indeterminate test results are being uploaded to the database, which “brings into question the accuracy of the results in the database and its’ entire functionality.”

While the safety of first responders is paramount, “my view is that by approaching each emergency call as a potentially high-risk environment for COVID-19 infection or spread, they could better protect themselves and the greater public, without having any impact on personal privacy.”

The Toronto Police Service has not accessed this database, Meaghan Gray, a TPS spokesperson, wrote in an email sent to the Star late Friday afternoon. “We continue to work with the government on clarification regarding terms of use.”

On March 17, the provincial government declared an emergency in Ontario in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, using powers activated under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act. The act gave the government sweeping powers to address the crisis and is set to expire May 6, unless it is extended.

The government announced on April 6 it had made a “time-limited emergency order” which temporarily enables first reponders to obtain COVID-19 positive status information from individuals with whom they are coming into contact, Stephen Warner, a spokesperson for the solicitor general, wrote in an emailed response to the CCLA letter.

“Strict protocols are enforced to limit access to this information and it is used only to allow first responders to take appropriate safety precautions to protect themselves and the communities they serve.”

But the CCLA letter says the regulation overreaches because the regulation authorizes the disclosure of COVID-19 status information only to the extent it is “necessary in order to prevent, respond to or alleviate the effects of the emergency.

“We have not found sufficient explanation of how providing this information to first responders, and police in particular, is useful, much less necessary, in responding to the present emergency.”

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Among the concerns the CCLA outlines is that any database listing individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19 will be “underinclusive,” so that many people who have the disease might not have been tested.

“Police officers, like all first responders, must operate under the assumption that everyone they come into contact with is a potential active carrier. Infection control measures targeting only individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19 will be ineffective at protecting frontline workers.”

Also, the advocacy groups say that according to the regulation and government statements the information being provided does not include the date that an individual tested positive.

“This means that old, outdated test results could incorrectly identify people as having COVID-19 when they have already recovered and are no longer contagious.”