Casualty Identification Program (CasID)

1. About the Department of National Defence (DND)

While most programs and services at DND center on national defence and the construction and maintenance of Canada’s defence needs, the Department also plays an important role in upholding Canada’s military history and heritage. As part of its commitment to support and honour the men and women of the Canadian Forces, DND records, researches, and publishes information about Canada’s military history, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), and the wars in which Canada fought.  This responsibility rests primarily with DND’s Directorate of History and Heritage (DHH).

As told, the history of the CAF is as long as the history of Canada itself and forms a large part of the country’s heritage. Canada’s military history and heritage is important not just for archival or ceremonial purposes, however. Military history and operations are also important in the education and training of new service members, and for meeting Canada’s international peace commitments. Based on the above, military history and heritage remains an essential part of the Department’s on-going programming and mandate.

2. About the Casualty Identification Program

DND’s Casualty Identification Program (CasID) helps to meet Canada’s legal and moral obligations in respect of Canada’s unaccounted-for military fatalities. Although active searches for the remains of Commonwealth service members were suspended in 1921, Commonwealth countries including Canada continue to attempt to identify the remains of missing service members found today. In Canada, this work is done by CasID, whose goal is to identify unknown Canadian service members and to provide those individuals with proper burials.

Currently, more than 27,000 Canadian service members from the First World War, the Second World War, and the United Nations Operations in Korea (Korean Conflict) have no known graves. In the aftermath of these wars, several commissions, including Canada’s Grave Registration Units and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, have endeavored to identify Canadian service members and to provide them with proper burials. The need to give a name to each missing Canadian military fatality – in honour of their sacrifice, and in commemoration of their lives – remains a very important goal for the Canadian Forces. Among other things, CasID promotes a strong sense of continuity and identity among service members. The Program also helps to tell the stories of Canadians lost in combat.

Investigations of skeletal remains begin when human remains are discovered and identified as Canadian war dead. Using several historical and scientific research methods, CasID identifies Canadian remains and helps to inform the families of identified individuals of the discovery. When an investigation is successful, identified human remains are buried with a name, by their unit, and in the presence of the deceased’s family.

3. Purpose and Scope of the Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA)

To identify the remains of a deceased Canadian, CasID may collect personal information from the relatives of Canadian service members.  Individuals with missing relatives from designated wars may register with CasID and provide their contact information. The Program also seeks out and solicits information from family contacts.  Family members of a deceased may be contacted with a request for additional information, including a buccal swab for DNA testing.

Under the Government of Canada’s Policy on Privacy Protection, all federal institutions subject to the Privacy Act are required to undertake an assessment of the privacy impacts associated with the development or design of new programs or services involving personal information (or when making significant changes to an existing program or service). In keeping with the above, and whereas the administration and operation of CasID requires DND/CAF to collect and use personal information from Program participants,^{Footnote 1} a PIA was considered necessary.

The PIA was completed under the direction of DHH and the Department’s Directorate of Access to Information and Privacy (DAIP). It included a review of the Program’s registration process, and a review of policies, procedures and controls implemented by DND to ensure that the collection and use of personal information from Program participants is done in a manner that is privacy sensitive. The objective of the PIA was to ensure that DND/CAF continues to meet its legal and regulatory requirements under the Privacy Act, and to ensure that privacy risks associated with the collection of personal information from Program participants and deceased service members are appropriately managed.

4. Privacy Analysis

Based on the results of the PIA, inherent privacy risks arising from the operation and administration of CasID are expected to be moderate. Potential impacts on the privacy of individuals are being properly managed by DND through appropriate legal, policy and technical measures geared at the protection of that information. Recommendations included in PIA are expected to reduce risks to a low (or acceptable) level.

5. Risk Area Identification and Categorization

A: Type of Program or Activity	Level of Risk to Privacy
Personal information is used to make decisions that directly affect the individual (i.e., determining eligibility for programs including authentication for accessing programs/services, administering program payments, overpayments, or support to clients, issuing or denial of permits/licenses, processing appeals, etc.).	2
B: Type of Personal Information Involved and Context	Level of Risk to Privacy
Sensitive personal information, including detailed profiles, allegations or suspicions, bodily samples and/or the context surrounding the personal information is particularly sensitive.	4
C: Program or Activity Partners and Private Sector Involvement	Level of Risk to Privacy
Within the department (amongst one or more programs within the department). With other federal institutions. Private sector organizations or international organizations or foreign governments.	4
D: Duration of the Program or Activity	Level of Risk to Privacy
Long-term program: Existing program that has been modified or is established with no clear “sunset”.	3
E: Program Population	Level of Risk to Privacy
The program affects certain individuals for external administrative purposes.	3
F: Technology and Privacy	Level of Risk to Privacy
Does the new or modified program or activity involve the implementation of a new electronic system, software or application program including collaborative software (or groupware) that is implemented to support the program or activity in terms of the creation, collection or handling of personal information?	No
Does the new or modified program or activity require substantial modifications to IT legacy systems and / or services?	No
The new or modified program or activity involves the implementation of potentially privacy invasive technologies?	No
G: Personal Information Transmission	Level of Risk to Privacy
The personal information is used within a closed system. No connections to Internet, Intranet or any other system. Circulation of hardcopy documents is controlled. The personal information is used in system that has connections to at least one other system. The personal information may be printed or transferred to a portable device.	3
H: Risk Impact to the Department	Level of Risk to Privacy
Managerial harm (i.e., processes must be reviewed, tools must be changed, change in provider / partner); organizational harm (i.e., changes to the organizational structure, changes to the organizations decision-making structure, changes to the distribution of responsibilities and accountabilities, changes to the program activity architecture, departure of employees, reallocation of HR resources); or financial harm (i.e., lawsuit, additional moneys required reallocation of financial resources).	3
I: Risk Impact to the Individual or Employee	Level of Risk to Privacy
Inconvenience.	1