By Canadian Press

Police drop privacy-breach case against Halifax teen:’No grounds to lay charges’

May 7, 2018 | 10:00 AM

HALIFAX — Police have dropped the case against a young Halifax man alleged to have breached a Nova Scotia freedom-of-information website, shifting the issue squarely back to whether the province had basic measures in place to protect its citizens’ private information.

In a news release, Halifax police say that after a thorough investigation, “the police have determined there to be no grounds to lay charges in the matter.”

The young man’s lawyer, David Fraser, had said repeatedly that the youth — who was arrested after a dramatic raid on his family’s home — had no malicious intent when he downloaded 7,000 documents from the public site.

The 19-year-old was collecting information about a teachers’ labour dispute, and hadn’t realized the site didn’t protect other information from a simple download program, Fraser said.

“Even though anybody who has looked at it has said these charges would never succeed, there’s always going to be some anxiety associated with it. So, to have this resolution, it’s just a relief,” he said Monday.

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Personal information ranging from social insurance numbers to documents meant only for the eyes of the applicants were accessed, according to the province.

Fraser said the case has “raised awareness about how the government secures information.”

NDP house leader Dave Wilson said the onus is now on the government to take responsibility for what happened.

Wilson pointed to previous warnings from the province’s auditor general about potential security problems with the website.

“Obviously enough wasn’t done to fix those problems and I think the government, the premier, the minister need to take full responsibility for this,” said Wilson.

“Definitely I think the government at a minimum should owe this young gentleman an apology,” said Wilson. “They need to take ownership of this.”

Police arrested the man on April 11 and said they gave him notice to appear under a rarely used section of the Criminal Code that prohibits unauthorized use of a computer with fraudulent intent.

However, in Monday’s news release, Supt. Jim Perrin, said, “as the investigation evolved, we have determined that the 19-year-old who was arrested on April 11 did not have intent to commit a criminal offence by accessing the information.”

The family and the youth have said the search with 15 officers left their home in disarray and the 19-year-old deeply distressed over the prospect of potential charges, said Fraser.

Police have said any complaints about the search could go through a complaints process, but Fraser said it was too early to comment on whether the family intended to explore that avenue.

“Whether the police acted proportionately and appropriately depends on what they were told by the province, and we don’t have insight into that yet,” he said.

His client was not immediately available for comment.

Perrin said in an interview Monday that when the province first told investigators that a large number of files had been taken, “there was a level of seriousness around the allegation, and our officers did a thorough investigation.”

“As you can appreciate it’s more complex when executing a search at a residence than one officer knocking at the door,” he said.

“We were looking for computer evidence, possible documentation evidence and there are a lot of places in a residence where these things can be kept.” 

In a statement, Internal Services Minister Patricia Arab said the government respects the police decision.

“We will continue to offer supports for those affected by this breach. Our priority from the outset has been containing the data,” she said in the statement.

“As we go forward, we will co-operate fully with the investigation of the Nova Scotia Auditor General and the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner.”

Karla MacFarlane, interim leader of the Progressive Conservatives, reiterated her party’s call for Arab to resign over the lack of oversight for the province’s web services.

MacFarlane also called on Premier Stephen McNeil to apologize to the 19-year-old.

“Right from the very beginning, they threw this young man under the bus in my opinion, and without knowing the facts,” she said. 

McNeil initially referred to the young man’s actions as “stealing,” but has since backed away from this strong language.

Fraser said, “I disagree with that conclusion vehemently, but I don’t know what he was told. So much of this is unknown.”

A number of experts on internet law have raised concerns about the arrest, saying if it had led to charges then groups ranging from journalists to archivists could face similar prosecutions for searching public websites without proper security measures in place.

Michael Tutton and Keith Doucette, The Canadian Press