Legal Research

Alberta’s Taking Names

Or will be, if Bill 42 [PDF], introduced into the Alberta Legislature two days ago, is passed into law. The bill would amend the Gaming and Liquor Act to permit licensees, i.e. bar owners and their employees, to take down the names of any patrons they suspect of being gang members and to share these names with other licensees and the police. Specifically:

69.2 (1) A licensee may, before allowing a person to enter licensed premises, collect the person's name, age and photograph.

(2) If a licensee has personal knowledge or reasonably believes that a person referred to in subsection (1) has, at any time within the preceding year, engaged in an activity referred to in section 69(1) or (2), the licensee may, in good faith, disclose the person's name, age and photograph to other licensees for the purpose of allowing them to determine whether they wish to allow the person to enter licensed premises.

(3) A licensee must, as soon as possible after a request is made by a police officer, disclose to the police officer any information collected under subsection (1).

The concern, of course, is that this would infringe citizens’ privacy, although, according to the CBC story, the Solicitor-General’s office said that bars would still have to follow the privacy commissioner’s guidelines.

Alberta’s Personal Information Protection Act governs the use of personal information by non-governmental organizations.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on April 24, 2009 (boomark / email).