OTTAWA – The company, which is monitoring the federal government’s $ 900 million agreement with military members who have sexually abused uniforms, admits more breaches of privacy, despite repeated promises to fix the problem.
Epiq Class Action Services Canada confirmed the additional errors after a third veteran approached The Canadian Press to announce that he had received an email containing the personal data of a different plaintiff earlier this month.
The veteran, who asked not to be identified because she still works for the federal government, said the information is in an attachment as she fights Epiq after the company sent her a check for settlement to the wrong address.
The federal court has appointed Epiq to administer the dispute resolution process after the government reached an agreement in November 2019 with plaintiffs in three overlapping group cases of sexual misconduct in the military.
“I feel betrayed and worried that my personal information has been sent to other members,” the veteran said. “I have submitted over 180 pages of documents and I am worried that someone has my information. Victimize everywhere. “
Epiq said earlier that the unintentional information did not include recommendations and other similar documents, but only the names of the plaintiffs, contact details and arbitrarily generated claim numbers.
However, she apologized for the mistakes since the first one was announced in March, and has repeatedly promised to take appropriate disciplinary and procedural steps to ensure that no more plaintiffs are affected.
The leak also prompted a group of plaintiffs, lawyers and government officials tasked with monitoring the agreement to order an independent audit of Epiq’s claims process to prevent further problems.
Since then, the company has hired an external auditor to review and recommend changes to its procedures, Epiq Vice President Angela Hoidas said in an email, adding: “We sincerely regret these additional revelations.
“While unintentional human error has affected a small portion of the claims we have successfully administered in this class, we believe that any unintentional error is unacceptable and we have already taken significant steps to improve our policies and procedures.”
Lawyer Jonathan Ptak, who represents some of the veterans and active-duty servicemen involved in the three government-settled lawsuits, said the audit had begun.
However, neither Epiq’s promises to tackle the problem nor the decision to order an audit halted the latest breach, which, according to a statement on Epiq’s website, brought the total number of claimants whose personal information had been compromised to 109.
Although Epiq did not disclose the total number of actual incidents in which the breach occurred, Defense Ministry spokeswoman Jessica Lamirande said the company had reported 20 separate violations since 8 February.
This includes 15 undeclared incidents discovered by the company during an internal review in late February.
“The national defense takes the issue of confidentiality very seriously,” Lamirande said in an email. “We have asked Epiq to investigate and take steps to ensure that this issue is addressed, resolved and will not be repeated.”
Nearly 20,000 people have applied for compensation as part of a class action agreement.
Retired Corporal Amy Green and fellow veteran Frans Menard said they had heard nothing more from the company, government or law firms involved in the deal after receiving personal information about other Epiq plaintiffs earlier this year.
“It’s disappointing, that’s for sure,” Menard said. “They’re trying to put everything under the rug.”
The veteran, who recently received information about another plaintiff, said she and others had already had problems with Epiq even before the breach of confidentiality, including incorrect information and settlement payments sent to the wrong addresses.
The information sent to Menard and Green consists of the names of the individual claimants, as well as the numbers of their claims, which can be used to file documents through a secure link on the class action website.
Hoidas said such documents would be reviewed by Epiq and that individual files could not be accessed, but Menard and Green said they were unhappy with Epiq’s response, especially given the sensitive nature of the claims and settlement deal.
While the office of the Privacy Commissioner said in March that he was investigating the issue after receiving an Epiq confidentiality breach report, spokesman Vito Pilieci said there was no update on the supervisor’s investigation.
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