Return fire

 I was astounded to learn this morning that for the past two years Health Canada has been tracking me via my cell phone. I should pay more attention. That public health officials would violate my privacy in this way is beyond the pale.

 To confirm this piece of news I went to the Health Canada website. It says that "Health Canada is responsible for helping Canadians maintain and improve their health.", how does tracking my cell phone help maintain and improve my health?

 I also went to the Public Health Agency (PHA) website, silence on the issue. That website sets out that the PHA has a  "focus on preventing disease and injuries, responding to public health threats, promoting good physical and mental health, and providing information to support informed decision making.". No mention of a focus on tracking Canadians or why they should track Canadians.

Why are they undertaking this tracking. I cannot find out. There is no mention of the practice on the Health Canada or PHA websites and a search of the federal website only takes you to the notification app which we all knew about and which the BC government declined, rightly, to participate in and which does not track information or a persons whereabouts. 

In an article I saw this morning the newspaper reported that the Commons Ethics Committee was undertaking and emergency meeting to investigate the  the practice of collecting data from mobile phones to " understand the travel patterns during the COVID pandemic.". How that prevents disease is not made clear and a politician noted that the application to extend the programme, which was the precipitating incident for the emergency meeting, was made just before Parliament paused for the holiday break and appeared to him to be a process more opaque than transparent.