Privacy commissioner invites submissions on First Nations COVID-19 reporting request

The privacy commissioner will hear the complaint of First Nations who want to know if there are confirmed COVID-19 cases in neighbouring communities, but it will take a few weeks longer than they had hoped.

Because the virus has already spread to several coastal nations, they had hoped to wrap up the hearing by Oct. 7, said Nuu-chahnulth Tribal Council president Judith Sayers.

However, the “written hearing” will be extended to Oct. 22 to allow the sides to examine each other's arguments and respond, according to a notice from the commissioner.

“We are very happy the commissioner agreed to hear this right away because we know there is a big backlog,” said Sayers. “They understand the urgency of this situation.”

The complaint was brought by the Heiltsuk, Tsilhqot'in and the 14 Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations. The Heiltsuk and Nuu-chah-nulth have confirmed COVID-19 cases in their communities already.

The group is asking the province to release the geographic location of presumptive and confirmed cases in nearby communities, whether that person has travelled to one of their nations in the last 14 days and the names of any members of their nations confirmed to have the virus to facilitate culturally safe contact tracing.

“The health authorities are releasing the names of schools where there are cases, so why can't we know where the other cases are?” asked Sayers.