Last year was record breaking for car sales in BC being the best performing province with an increase of 7% in car sales. Over 85% of Canadian households own at least one vehicle. Now the government of British Columbia appears to be endorsing thousands of secret internet investigations conducted by ICBC on British Columbia motorists. There is a new push at ICBC to detect fraud and they are employing special fraud-flagging software to start tracking claimants the second they make an injury claim.
The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, ICBC, blames fraud for all their financial woes ignoring other factors such as mismanagement and the elimination of their case settlement mediation department. Although ICBC has been given the green light to conduct mass surveillance on all ICBC injury claimants, the courts are still prepared to protect the confidentiality of the citizens of British Columbia.
Despite the access ICBC has to a claimant’ medical history, every claimant is entitled to maintenance of the confidentiality implicit in his or her attendance in a physician’s examining room. ICBC claimants are entitled to protection of privacy on personal matters, absent serious concerns relating to health or safety, or express legislative provisions compelling release of the information in the public interest.( Logan v. Hong, 2013 BCCA 249, para 11)
The special place of confidentiality in the physician-patient relationship is of long standing in Canada. In Halls v. Mitchell, [1928] S.C.R. 125, the Supreme Court of Canada commented upon the duty of secrecy owed to a patient, affirming that the patient’s right of confidentiality is superseded only by issues of paramount importance.”
As the surveillance conducted by ICBC is slowly revealed the public will have to decide whether allowing ICBC to conduct secret internet investigations is appropriate in a free and democratic society.
Learn more about what ICBC can and cannot do:
