Following a highly critical report and unprecedented legal action by Ontario’s privacy commissioner, Toronto police have taken steps to keep U.S. border police from automatically accessing records about a Canadian’s suicide attempts — sensitive personal information that could result in being denied entry.

“This is a huge, huge achievement and a significant advancement in terms of mental health issues,” said former Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian, who in her final year as privacy watchdog took on what she called the “perplexing” and “indiscriminant” disclosure of suicide attempt incidents by police.

“You don’t have to be branded by a mental health mistake,” she said.

In a report to the Toronto police board released Monday, Chief Mark Saunders outlined changes made in the wake of Cavoukian’s 2014 report, Crossing the Line, which chronicled the experiences of Ontarians refused entry into the U.S. based on a past suicide attempt.

Cavoukian’s report and a Star investigation probed how U.S. border guards were being alerted to prior suicide attempts through the Canadian Police Information System (CPIC), a national police database operated by the RCMP.

In his letter to the board, Saunders described new protocol that “balances public safety with the need to protect Canadians’ privacy” by setting stricter limits on what information can be viewable by U.S. Customs and Border Protection through CPIC.

It’s a different solution than Cavoukian’s, which suggested Toronto police halt the practice of automatically uploading or disclosing personal information through CPIC related to suicide threats or attempts.

Insistent that a record needs to be shared with other police forces — information about previous suicide attempts or threats “can be instrumental in managing potential risk to the public, the officer and, importantly, the person in crisis,” Saunders writes — Toronto police instead worked with the RCMP to develop a new CPIC function that blocks U.S. border officials from accessing certain information.

Since November, U.S. border officials have been able to see suicide-attempt records only under certain specific circumstances, such as when the attempt involved serious violence or harm of others, or appeared to be intended to provoke a lethal response by police.

Cavoukian is pleased with the solution.

“Maybe they could have gone a little farther, that is the only point — that we would have preferred they not share it with the RCMP at all. But at least they are saying, ‘Look, we can make sure that this information is not viewable by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.’ So, hallelujah.”

Cavoukian and Toronto police were at bitter loggerheads last spring, following the release of the former privacy watchdog’s report.

After Cavoukian demanded Toronto police stop the default release of all suicide attempt records, Toronto police spokesperson Mark Pugash said the force “fundamentally disagreed” with her, saying collection of mental health information is vital for the safety of officers and citizens.

Feeling she had “no other recourse,” Cavoukian filed a notice of application for judicial review with the Ontario Superior Court to stop Toronto police from disclosing the mental health records it logs into CPIC.

That legal action is ongoing. In a statement Monday, current commissioner Brian Beamish said his office is “encouraged that the Toronto Police Service appears to have made progress in response to our recommendations. We look forward to reviewing the report in detail and determining the impact on our court action.”

Cavoukian says that if she were still in the job, she would think twice about proceeding with that court action, adding the changes are “evidence that miracles do occur.”

“I’m so delighted and so grateful to Chief Saunders,” Cavoukian said. “This is history in the making. I have been commissioner for over 17 years, I have been with the office for 25 years … I have never seen a reversal like this.”

Toronto police spokesperson Mark Pugash took issue with Cavoukian’s characterization of the change as a “reversal.” The force has maintained its commitment to sharing suicide attempt records with other forces while finding a way to ensure the information did not go the U.S. officials, he said.

“Her comments are inaccurate and unseemly. Her triumphalism reveals more than I’m sure she intended,” Pugash said.

The length of time such records are held has also been reduced; Toronto police will now re-evaluate the record every two years, instead of every five.

Police also conducted an audit of all suicide attempt records and purged 9,766 of 15,180 — removing nearly 65 per cent. The large cull is due in part due to the creation of the two-year expiry date.

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A handful of high-profile cases have highlighted the plight of people with a history of suicide attempts who have been barred from entering the U.S. because of a police record of the incident. In 2011, Lois Kamenitz was barred from taking her flight to California. In 2013, Ellen Richardson was stopped from flying to New York.

A 2014 Star investigation found dozens of examples of innocent Canadians who have had travel, employment, education or volunteer work undermined by police records that included, among other things, mental health calls to 911.

According to a Star analysis, there were more than 420,000 people listed in CPIC who had not been convicted of a crime, as of 2005, including nearly 2,500 with a notation for “attempt suicide.”