Nunavut privacy czar says job applicants have right to see references

Elaine Keenan Bengts, Nunavut’s privacy commissioner, has been appearing before a legislative committee this week to answer questions about her audit of the Qikiqtani General Hospital. (PHOTO BY STEVE DUCHARME)

Pat Angnakak, MLA for Iqaluit-Niaqunnguu, chairs a standing committee review of a recent audit of the Qikiqtani General Hospital by Information and Privacy Commissioner Elaine Keenan Bengts. (PHOTO BY STEVE DUCHARME)

Nunavut’s information and privacy commissioner warned Nunavut MLAs that a possible change to government policy restricting applicants from gaining access to their own job references is contrary to the territory’s laws, as well as rulings from the Supreme Court of Canada.

A policy that implies “we are simply not going to disclose any of the information we get from references is clearly, in my opinion, contrary to the [Access to Information and Privacy Protection Act],” Elaine Keenan Bengts said in Nunavut’s Legislative Assembly, May 11.

Keenan Bengts, privacy commissioner for both Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, has spent the last two days before members of Nunavut’s legislative standing committee reviewing her recent privacy audit on the Qikiqtani General Hospital.

But as the hearings wrapped up, committee chair and Iqaluit-Niaqunnguu MLA, Pat Angnakak, took time to address concerns she said were expressed by some of her constituents, and confirmed by Nunavut’s minister of finance, Keith Peterson.

Applicants for Government of Nunavut positions used to be able to see copies of all available references made about them, whether they got the job or not.

But that has apparently changed, according to a response sent to Angnakak by the minister.

“I do understand the need to encourage references to provide candid references. but I am also concerned that candidates who unsuccessfully apply for positions do not have the opportunity to challenge claims about them that may have been made in bad faith,” Angnakak told Keenan-Bengts.

Keenan Bengts responded that an individual’s right to their own personal information is “the highest level of entitlement” under Nunavut’s Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

References on job applications are “by definition” the personal information about whom they are given, she said.

“If you give an opinion about my suitability for a position, your opinion is my personal information by definition of the act.”

Denying access to that information is a matter of discretion, she added, and must be done on a case-by-case basis and not through a blanket government policy.

Angnakak told members of the standing committee she would table both her letter to the minister and his response during the upcoming spring sitting of the legislative assembly.

Keenan Bengts added that the conditions behind any decision to withhold personal information must be explained to the individual—but such an explanation is rarely given, in her experience as privacy commissioner.

“Its more often that I don’t get those explanations when I’m doing an investigation, then I do, so it’s still an ongoing work in progress… but I believe its necessary,” she said.

The Nunavut Legislative Assembly’s spring sitting is scheduled to begin May 29.