Report finds culture of '"triple-delete'" in B.C.

• Position: GOVERNMENT RECORDS - British Columbia

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A culture of "triple deleting" e-mails has infected British Columbia (B.C.) government offices, according to a damning report and investigation by the B.C. privacy commissioner.

A subsequent 70-page report calls for tougher penalties for staff who intentionally try to evade or ignore freedom of information requests, according to CBC News. In the report, former privacy commissioner David Loukidelis calls on the government to "issue a rule prohibiting anyone from triple deleting emails."

He said public service employees who destroy records or help others destroy records in order to evade requests for access to information should be disciplined or fired, as well as face charges under freedom of information (FOI) legislation.

Current B.C. Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham asked Loukidelis for help after finding that a transportation ministry employee had intentionally deleted e-mails and records connected to the so-called Highway of Tears deaths and disappearances.

A Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) investigation identified 18 women and girls who went missing along a stretch of Highway 16 since 1969. Denham's report claims staffer George Gretes deleted records and then lied to her office under oath, CBC News reported.

Denham's report, "Access Denied," explains the practice of "triple deleting," in which an e-mail is moved to the computer system's "deleted" folder, erased from the folder itself, and then manually deleted from a 14-day backup system.

Denham also found that Premier Christy Clark's deputy chief of staff, Michele Cadario, was bulk deleting her e-mails on a daily basis. According to Denham's report, Cadario claimed "very few" of the e-mails she sends are non-transitory because she...