Ontario Health Privacy Legislation falls short of PIPEDA, says CIPPIC

In response to Industry Canada's call for comments on its proposed exemption order for health information custodians in Ontario, CIPPIC filed comments today pointing out a substantial difference between the federal and provincial privacy regimes, in respect of permitted disclosures of personal health information for research purposes, without the patient's consent. Under PIPEDA, certain important criteria must be met. Under the Ontario legislation, such criteria need only be "considered" by a research ethics board.