Members observe a moment of silence to remember the children of Kawthar and Ebraheim Barho, Syrian refugees who arrived in Halifax 18 months ago
The Nova Scotia Legislature opened its spring sitting Thursday by paying tribute to the seven children killed last week in a house fire in a Halifax suburb.
“February 19th will forever be etched into our souls,” said Maguire. “The Barho family will forever be part of our communities, our province, in our prayers and in our heart.” The premier also pledged an overhaul of the province’s privacy law, although he said legislation likely wouldn’t be tabled until the fall sitting.His promise came a day after Catherine Tully, the province’s privacy commissioner, gave an impassioned plea on the need to modernize privacy legislation during an appearance before the legislature’s public accounts committee.
Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Houston said his party has previously tabled legislation that would make Tully an officer of the legislature with order-making power. Tully said the breaches were preventable and were caused by a “serious failure of due diligence” in the deployment of a new technology tool.
Among the findings was a belief by employees that roles and responsibilities were not sufficiently defined during the response to last April’s breach of the Freedom-of-Information web portal. The review also said a method needs to be developed to evaluate the severity of threats and the sensitivity of data.