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OCS is currently the province’s only source of legal recreational marijuana, and Canada Post is responsible for delivering the product.

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OCS is demanding Canada Post gain written assurances from the individual who accessed the information that it has not been shared and that it will be deleted.

Ford also notified Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner of the incident.

Photo by Graeme Roy / THE CANADIAN PRESS/LCBO

According to his letter to Commissioner Brian Beamish, OCS learned from Canada Post on Nov. 1 about an individual that was able to access the names and addresses –- but not personal financial information –- of its customers.

“At the outset, I want to express our growing concern that six days have passed and despite repeated calls to Canada Post to take responsibility and inform the individuals affected by this breach, to our knowledge nothing has been done,” Ford wrote.

Emails went out Wednesday to customers impacted by the breach, a source said.

In a statement, Canada Post confirmed that what it described as “limited delivery information” from about 4,500 cannabis customer orders was accessed by an individual OCS customer through Canada Post’s website “using OCS reference numbers.”

Canada Post says both organizations have been working closely since then to prevent further unauthorized access.

“We have also shared with OCS that we are confident that the customer who accessed the information only shared it with Canada Post and deleted it without distributing further,” the statement says.

The mail agency has notified the federal and Ontario privacy commissioners.

“We are pleased that OCS has notified their customers of the issue and will continue to work together to provide customers with assurance that this is being fully addressed,” Canada Post said.

“Canada Post takes the privacy of information seriously and continues to work with OCS.”

Ford said OCS expects Canada Post to re-engineer their systems to protect customers. OCS immediately removed reference numbers issued from the warehouse system to Canada Post, Ford said.

aartuso@postmedia.com