FRIDAY
March 20 2015
Vol. 106 No. 22
FEATURE 14
WWI nursing sisters SWEET SPOT 24
Chocolate... a love story SPORTS 29
Falcons’ five-year plan There’s more online at
vancourier.com WEEKEND EDITION
THE VOICE of VANCOUVER NEIGHBOURHOODS since 1908
HOT PURSUIT Members of Vancouver’s Iranian community take part in the annual Fire Festival at Ambleside Beach Tuesday. The tradition of jumping over open fires is a purification ritual preceding the Persian new year, or Nowruz, which begins March 20. See story page 12. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET
ICBC’s privacy protection doubted
Sharing drivers’ private information with police open to abuse says critic Bob Mackin
bob@bobmackin.ca
Does ICBC guard your privacy? A North Vancouver man says no and he hopes a judge eventually agrees that a loophole should be closed. Daryl Cook learned while disputing a speeding ticket in 2006 that the publicowned automobile insurer and driving licensor had disclosed his unlisted phone number to a Burnaby RCMP officer. Cook cross-examined the officer, who confirmed existence of ICBC’s police hotline. Police can call an ICBC phone number (which is changed every six months) and provide their badge number to gain information about drivers and policy holders.
“They can get a court order, they can get a search warrant, they can go through the appropriate channels,” said Cook. “To create a police line that just shares information about where you work, where your bank accounts are, what your phone numbers are — it needs to be stopped and stopped now.” ICBC operates the police line under a Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act section that says public bodies can disclose personal information to other public bodies or law enforcement agencies in Canada “to assist a specific investigation that is undertaken with a view to a law enforcement proceeding, or from which a law enforcement proceeding is likely to result.”
Cook, however, said it is open to abuse. He filed a B.C. Supreme Court lawsuit in January 2012 alleging breach of privacy and breach of contract against ICBC, the special investigations unit’s Gene Krecsy and the Vancouver Police Department. Cook said ICBC also gathered three files from VPD in June 2009 about a kidnapping he witnessed, vandalism against his former Strathcona house and a dismissed assault charge — all unrelated to his insurance claims. The lawsuit was in court last summer on a procedural issue, but Cook hopes for a trial next year. VPD did not respond for comment and RCMP Sgt. Rob Vermeulen referred the Courier to ICBC. Transit Police media
advisor Anne Drennan confirmed officers contact ICBC, but “no statistics are kept with respect to the accessing of the databases.” ICBC denied a request to interview an executive about the police line. Instead, spokesman Adam Grossman sent an email stating the police line is handled around the clock by a trained unit of the Claims Contact Centre in Surrey. “If the caller cannot identify themselves properly, no information is provided,” Grossman said. “The most common types of information given include the registered owner’s name, address, telephone number, vehicle description and insurance policy information.” Continued on page 6