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| Sensitive Canadian document found on rainy streets |
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| Friday, August 15, 2008 |
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| A sensitive Environment Canada document was found wet on an Ottawa street by someone who gave it to the CBC today. |
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| The 131-page document was found on Castlefrank Road in Kanata, Ontario in a rain-stained, tire-marked brown envelope by a passerby. |
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| The document which had the stamp Protected B on every page detailed various security vulnerabilities of the NEMISIS database which is used by officers to track and prosecute environmental law-breakers. |
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| If someone were able to shut the system down, or hack inside and delete or corrupt the information, it could affect the prosecution of the lawbreakers. |
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| The database was unveiled in 1999 as the National Enforcement Management Information System and Intelligence System. |
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| However, on the document, it referred to the database as National Enforcement and Emergency Management Information System and Intelligence System, adding the words 'and Emergency' to the name. |
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| Protection B documents are the second lowest grade of classified government documents. |
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| Environment Canada spokesperson Julie Hahn said they apply to letters of complaint, criticism or injury, research or scientific notes and findings that don`t have any conclusion, and Treasury Board letters, agendas and minutes that don`t deal with subjects of national interest. |
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| Environment Minister John Baird has asked government officials how such documents that are supposed to be stored in 'approved security cabinets' wound up on the street. |
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| 'I'm told two things: that it's neither classified nor secret and that it's stuff that could be available under access to information,' Baird said. |
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| Environment Canada spokeswoman Sujata Raisinghani told CBC News the department will look into the incident. |
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| 'We take document security seriously,' she said, but refused to give any more details about how the papers came to be on a road. |
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| Paul Dewar, an Ottawa New Democrat MP, said the combined security lapses raise serious questions about the government's ability to secure sensitive documents. |
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| Dewar says that bureaucrats of the Conservative government have complained to him about document security to the point that they can`t share the information with their own colleagues. |
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| However, when a government document has been found on the streets, the government then says it wasn't particularly sensitive. |
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| 'This government is so consumed with control of information and secrecy yet they don't seem to be able to get the fundamentals right,' Dewar said. |
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| The incident is a reminiscent of two other incidents. |
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| In March, a bundle of blueprints for a new headquarters for the military's counterterrorism unit were found stuffed in the trash on a downtown street. |
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| In May, Maxime Bernier was forced to resign as Foreign Affairs minister after it became known that he left sensitive documents at the apartment of his then-girlfriend Julie Couillard who had ties to the Hells Angels biker gang. |
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| Sources |
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| 'Sensitive government document found on rainy Ottawa street' — CBC.ca, August 15, 2008 |
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| 'Document found on street not secret, say feds' — The Canadian Press, August 15, 2008 |
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| 'Environment Canada security report found on street' — Toronto Star, August 15, 2008 |
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| Peter Zimonjic. |
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| 'MP calls for probe into misplaced documents' — Edmonton Sun, August 16, 2008 |
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| Categories: |
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| August 15, 2008 |
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| Canada |
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| Published |
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| North America |
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| Politics and conflicts |
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| Environment Canada |
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| Archived |