.....Weeks before first dossiers from defunct database to go out By VALERIE LAWTON Ottawa Bureau OTTAWA--The federal government has been swamped with 55,000 requests from Canadians who want to see their personal files from the now-defunct "Big Brother" database. And officials at the Human Resources department said yesterday it will be weeks yet before a single file will be sent out. "It's taken a while," acknowledged spokesperson Daniel Lavoie. "We spent a lot of time ensuring we could protect people's privacy. We don't want to mix files." Human Resources Minister Jane Stewart pulled the plug on the massive database tracking the lives of 33 million ordinary Canadians at the end of May. The decision came just weeks after the federal privacy commissioner went public with his concerns about the so-called Longitudinal Labout Force File. The database includes as many as 2,000 pieces of information about individual Canadians, including their education, marital status, ethnic origin, disabilities, income tax, employment and social assistance history. The deluge of requests for personal files began immediately after privacy commissioner Bruce Phillips revealed the databank's existence. He and other critics said the database was an invasion of privacy and could be misused. Phillips warned it was "tantamount to a citizen profile." Providing the individual files has been complicated by the fact the database--essentially a series of databases connected by software-- has already been dismantled. That means officials will have to pull information from numerous separate databanks to recreate the original files. Lavoie said the department hopes the first personal files will be ready to go out within four weeks. It could take from eight to 12 weeks to complete the work, he said. At the time Stewart announced the dismantling of the database, she also said her department would: --Establish rules for future research projects where information from separate databases is linked. Future linkages will be considered "case by case" by a committee that will seek advice from the privacy commissioner. --Report annually to Canadians about how it uses personal information in research and policy analysis. --Recommend legal protections, including penalties, for information collected from Canadians for use by Human Resources. --Speak to provincial governments about whether they want to continue sharing their data. (There is no information-sharing agreement with Ontario or Quebec.) ======================================= Thought many would appreciate the above. Muriel M. Davidson <davidson3542@home.com> Canadian Census Committee