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Bateman apologizes for 1,500 leaked email addresses
Conservative MP Joyce Bateman (TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES) Photo Store
OTTAWA — Manitoba MP Joyce Bateman apologized Wednesday after her constituency office sent an email newsletter to constituents but forgot to hide the email addresses of over 1,500 recipients.
The newsletter was sent by a constituency assistant to 1,533 people as an attachment to an email on Sept. 21. The email included nearly 15 pages of email addresses. Many of the recipients had never subscribed to the newsletter and questioned why they received it.
Three hours after the first email, the same assistant sent another email apologizing for sending it to non-subscribers.
"Our office experienced an unfortunate clerical error involving various email contact lists and many have received the Bateman’s Bulletin in error," wrote Emelia Nyarku. "We are so sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused."
She then invited people to subscribe to the newsletter in the future.
But Winnipegger Jill Hudspith said the fact non-subscribers received the newsletter was a small fraction of the problem that Bateman just breached the privacy of 1,533 constituents by sending their email addresses to everyone else on the list.
"I thought, ‘Boy oh boy, you’re not apologizing for the right thing," Hudspith said.
Hudspith said she has never directly contacted Bateman but expects the MP got her email address from a recent petition Hudspith signed about saving the Experimental Lakes Area.
"She is my MP, she has gleaned information about me and she has the right to contact me as her constituent," said Hudspith. "The issue is the carelessness in the office. All those people now have my email address. It’s a question of privacy."
Hudspith said she emailed Bateman’s office on Tuesday to complain and has yet to hear back with an apology for the privacy breach.
Bateman told the Free Press in an email Wednesday she takes every opportunity to communicate with her constituents but is sorry for the mistake.
"I apologize for this administrative error and have already put in place procedures to ensure it does not happen again," she wrote.
She did not say how she got the email addresses on the list.
Bateman experienced a similar gaffe during the 2011 federal election when an aide accidentally sent an internal list of potential voters to a member of the public.
David Fraser, a privacy lawyer at McInnes Cooper in Halifax, said the privacy breach is a sign of carelessness but there isn’t much people can do about it.
"It’s a stupid mistake," he said. "They shouldn’t have done it. But it’s a problem without a remedy."
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