The privacy discussion brings back memories. When I first discovered there were the 300,000—it was my discovery—I phoned officials whom I knew personally and said, “Is this right?” They said yes, and I asked why they didn't tell people about their benefits. They said it was because it would violate their privacy.
When, about nine months later, I finally got the story in the newspaper and the newspapers told about the 300,000, the very first lines that were given by the bureaucracy for why they don't tell these seniors is that it would violate their privacy.
There's a section of the Privacy Act that says it is not a violation of someone's privacy to tell them things about themselves that are to their benefit. In 2002 the Privacy Commissioner appeared before this committee and said, do not use privacy as an excuse to deny benefits to people.