“Professionals working in the justice, health-care and social services sectors play an important role in reducing or eliminating IPV harm,” says a Nov. 27 news release issued by the office of Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) Patricia Kosseim.
“A critical component of IPV prevention and mitigation includes the timely and responsible disclosure of personal information,” it adds. “Effective information sharing could mean the difference between life and death.”
According to the release, 123,319 victims (aged 12 years and older) of intimate partner violence in Canada reported incidents to police in 2023, with the victims primarily being women and gender-diverse individuals. However, it added, many incidents go unreported and the scale of the problem is likely much larger.
The release notes that a number of public inquests and inquiries related to IPV in recent years have highlighted misconceptions about Canada’s privacy laws in such situations.
The resolution by privacy regulators — which was finalized during a meeting in Ottawa in October of federal, provincial and territorial information and privacy commissioners — affirms that Canada’s privacy laws generally permit the disclosure of personal information if there is a risk of serious harm to health or safety.
It urges governments to work with their respective privacy commissioners or ombuds to ensure that organizations develop clear policies on permissible disclosures that include staff training, public education campaigns, the dissemination of IPV-related data, statistics and trends to inform policymaking, and the development of “culturally sensitive and trauma-informed tools to support organizations serving at-risk communities.”
In late May, Ontario’s office of the IPC issued its own guidance to help professionals better understand the province’s privacy laws when sharing personal information in cases of intimate partner violence.
In a November 2022 blog post, Ontario-based feminist lawyer Pamela Cross, author of the upcoming book And Sometimes They Kill You: Confronting the Epidemic of Intimate Partner Violence, reflects on the importance of privacy for survivors of IPC — and the additional threats to their privacy presented by technology. But the survivor’s safety is the overriding concern, she adds.
“Important as privacy for survivors is, another important principle is keeping those survivors safe and, if breaching privacy and sharing personal information are sometimes necessary to do that, I am going to fall on the side of doing so every time,” she writes.
“As determined in a 1999 Supreme Court of Canada case involving a serious assault on a woman,” she adds, “personal information that would otherwise be confidential can be shared in certain circumstances.”
Cross points out that the decision to share that information hinges on three factors: a clear link to an identifiable person or group, a risk of serious bodily harm or death and an imminent danger.
If you have any information, story ideas or news tips for Law360 Canada, please contact John Schofield at john.schofield1@lexisnexis.ca or call 905-415-5815.