OTTAWA, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- The Royal Canadian Mounted Police's release of national gun registry information to a polling firm it hired will be reviewed, officials said Thursday.
Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan said his ministry didn't approve the RCMP's decision to use the outside polling company EKOS to conduct research using national gun registry data, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported. Van Loan called the police agency's release of personal information in the registry "offensive and inappropriate."
Canada's privacy commissioner is to review the matter, the broadcaster said.
The CBC said some gun owners were angered that names, addresses and phone numbers from the gun registry were given to the research firm.
The RCMP had hired EKOS to poll gun owners to determine their level of satisfaction with the law enforcement agency's firearms-control program. About 1,100 gun owners responded to the voluntary poll.
Police say that didn't violate privacy rules because EKOS was working as an extension of the RCMP.
"We contracted EKOS people, security cleared them to the level that our people are, and they were conducting the research on our behalf," said Chief Superintendent Marty Cheliak, who heads the RCMP's firearms program.
