LifeLabs agrees to comply with privacy commissioners’ orders, but challenges release of investigation report

TORONTO – Wednesday, July 29, 2020 –On June 25, the Information and Privacy Commissioners of Ontario and British Columbia issued a joint investigation report into the company’s 2019 privacy breach involving millions of its customers.

LifeLabs has since confirmed that they will comply with all of the commissioners’ orders and the recommendation in the report. The commissioners’ offices will continue to actively monitor the company’s progress towards full compliance.

Commissioners Patricia Kosseim (Ontario) and Michael McEvoy (B.C.) maintain the view that the public release of the joint investigative report is vital to bringing to light the underlying causes of the privacy breach and rebuilding public trust by providing a transparent account of their investigation and findings.

However, LifeLabs has decided to seek a court order preventing the public release of the commissioners’ joint investigation report claiming that some of the information it provided to the commissioners is privileged or otherwise confidential, a claim which the commissioners take issue with. As this matter is now before the courts, our offices will not be providing any further comment at this time.

Last month, both offices released a summary of their investigation into the breach. It found that the company was in violation of privacy laws and failed to take the necessary precautions to protect the personal health information of millions of Canadians.