Disturbing thought of the day

I was reading an article in a trade magazine this morning about the BCGEU blocking the privatization of the the administration of the provincial Pharmacare and Medicare programmes. The two comanies shortlisted at the momement are IBM Canada and a U.S. company called Maximus that is based in Virginia. From the article:

A legal opinion obtained by the BC Government and Service Employees' Union (BCGEU) says Canadian subsidiaries of U.S. companies are subject to the Patriot Act. Passed in the US after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the act requires a company with access to documents sought by the FBI to turn them over, without informing the owner of the information of the release.

This in itself is disturbing, but there is another aspect to this, not mentioned in the article, that is even more disturbing. The federal government outsources its collections, so we are talking Canada student loans, income tax, and any other federally held debt, to Canadian Bonded Credit Ltd.. All the of the charted banks in Canada also use CBCL. Effectively CBCL is the only collection agency in Canada and they, as a matter of course, maintain the all the records on your financial history. They know your bank accounts, your credit cards, if you have been paying your bills on time, whenever you have looked for an apartment and a credit check was done to see if you could pay the rent, your address, your phone number, your social insurance number, et al. Canadian Bonded Credit Ltd. is a division of IntelliRisk Management, based in Columbus, Ohio. This means your entire personal financial history can be had by the United States government on their whim alone.

I do believe I'll by writing Hedy Fry a letter about this. Although, first I will be contacting the BCGEU to find out more about the legal opion they aquired.