Pubdate: Tue, 04 Oct 2016
Source: Ottawa Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2016 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: http://www.ottawasun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://www.ottawasun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/329
Author: Jacquie Miller
Page: 6

CUSTOMERS FUME OVER POT SHOP PRIVACY BREACH

Client info e-mailed to almost 500 people

Who's shopping at Ottawa's largest local marijuana dispensary chain?
That information has been widely shared after Magna Terra Health
Services accidentally sent an email to nearly 500 "clients and
friends" that listed all their email addresses.

Some Magna Terra customers who want to keep their medical marijuana
purchases private are upset.

Magna Terra president Franco Vigile sent a second email apologizing
for the privacy breach and saying the employee responsible for the
original email sent Sept. 30 had been let go.

"We take risks daily to ensure all of our members have safe and
convenient access to their medication which I believe outlines our
sincerity and dedication towards caring about our members which leaves
me extremely upset over this situation," said Vigile's apology email.
He wrote that he had contacted the service provider to "try and
rectify the error by recalling all of the emails sent out."

About 470 email addresses were visible on the original email. Most are
personal Gmail and Hotmail accounts. One, however, corresponds to that
of a high school teacher at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.

Magna Terra operates medical marijuana dispensaries on Carling Avenue
and in Stittsville. Vigile says the company takes privacy seriously.
Last week's disclosure was an isolated incident, he said in a written
response to Postmedia. "Unfortunately errors like this do happen
fairly often in all industries and types of businesses and we are
doing everything we can to ensure it will not happen again."

Customer Sydney Chard has asked to be removed from Magna Terra's
database. Chard provided the dispensary with extensive health records
with the assumption the organization was a secure, safe and discreet
"medical" environment. "Until we have established regulations around
distribution of marijuana, institutions such as this one should not be
considered a professional medical provider as they are not accountable
to the people they serve," he said.

Medical marijuana is legal only if obtained from a producer licensed
by Health Canada who can only sell dried weed or oil. They must send
their products by mail. Storefront sales are not allowed and are thus
operating illegally, according to the federal government.

The office of Canada's privacy commissioner said it has received a
complaint regarding the Magna Terra email and could not comment
further. But federal privacy law that covers the private sector says
"organizations are required to have procedures in place to safeguard
the information entrusted to them."

University of Ottawa law professor Jeremy de Beer said it's doubtful
any clients who tried to sue for breach of privacy would succeed. "It
would not surprise me if some class-action lawyers smell blood, but it
does not seem to be a particularly egregious breach of privacy, if it
is one at all."

To prove a breach of privacy, the incident must be intentional and
something a reasonable person would find it "highly offensive," said
de Beer. The court would also consider such factors as how easily
people could be identified. "If (the email address)  it's not so sensitive."

Vigile acknowledges that his dispensaries operate in a "grey area" -
the federal government simply calls them illegal - but says he opened
them because he is passionate about the benefits of medical marijuana
and wants to help people.

Patients sometimes have trouble getting what they want, as quickly as
they want, from licensed producers, said Vigile.

The government has promised to legalize recreational marijuana in the
spring. Canadian courts have also ruled that medical marijuana
patients have the right to reasonable access to their medicine;
dispensary owners often cite that as a justification for operating
outside the law.
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MAP posted-by: Matt