Restorative Engagement Program

Government Institution

Department of National Defence (DND)

Government official responsible for the PIA

Linda Rizzo Michelin
Chief Operating Officer
Sexual Misconduct Support and Resource Centre (SMSRC)

Head of the government institution or Delegate for section 10 of the Privacy Act

Anne Bank Executive Director
Directorate Access to Information and Privacy

Description of Program or Activity (from Departmental Results Framework):

Core Responsibility: Defence Team

Description:  Recruit, develop and support an agile and diverse Defence Team, within a healthy workplace free from harmful behaviour; support military families; and meet the needs of all retiring military personnel, including the ill and injured. Strengthen Canadian communities by investing in youth.

Standard or Institution Specific Class of Record:

DND SMR 101 (Restorative Engagement Records) – Pending TBS Approval

Standard or Institution Specific Personal Information Bank:

DND PPU 882 (Restorative Engagement Program) – Pending TBS Approval

Legislated Authority for Activity:

Information is used to establish a means for Class Members to communicate to the Defence Representatives their experience(s) of sexual misconduct, the impacts of those experiences and /or their insights into culture change as it relates to sexual misconduct in the military workplace.  Personal information is collected under the authority of s. 4 of National Defence Act which authorizes the services of the Sexual Misconduct Support and Resource Centre, as well as in accordance with Section 5.01 of the CAF-DND Sexual Misconduct Final Settlement Agreement (Court File no. T-2111016 and Court File No. T-460-17; commonly called the Heyder-Beattie FSA).

Summary of the Project / Initiative/ Change:

This PIA has been developed to assess the Sexual Misconduct Support and Resource Centre’s (SMSRC’s) deployment of the Restorative Engagement Program (REP) which was developed in accordance with the Final Settlement Agreement (FSA) of the Department of National Defence-Canadian Armed Forces (DND-CAF) Sexual Misconduct class action lawsuit; commonly called the Heyder-Beattie FSA.

Section 5.01 and Schedule K of the FSA requires DND/CAF to establish a REP to allow Class Members (CMs) of the FSA to communicate their experience of sexual misconduct to senior representatives of DND and CAF.  When CMs submitted a claim, they were given the option of expressing interest in participating in the REP in addition to seeking financial compensation.  For those who expressed an interest in the REP, some of their FSA claim form data was transferred to the SMSRC’s dedicated system for the REP.

Once data is received by the REP, program officials contact CMs to determine their continued desire and consent to participate in the REP.  Once confirmed, the REP staff discuss the options available to the CM in participating.

In addition to collecting personal information on CMs, the REP also collects and manages defence representatives (DRs) who are tasked with listening, acknowledging, and respond to CM submissions.  DRs are nominated by their Commanding Officer or manager from within the CAF, DND, and the Staff of the Non-Public Funds (SNPF) to be the face of senior management/leadership.

The REP is consent-based.  CMs can opt to withdraw their consent at any time. 

Restorative engagements are facilitated by SMSRC Restorative Practitioners (RPs) who have experience and training in restorative approaches.  Restorative engagement provides opportunities to talk about the causes and impacts of sexual misconduct and to help change the culture that enables it.  To support those changes and to assist in authoring a final report on the REP, RPs take detailed notes of the themes that are discussed and come from the engagements. 

In the completion of this PIA, privacy risks were identified as were corresponding and effective risk mitigation recommendations.  Once a draft of the PIA was reviewed by the REP (and SMSRC leadership) a fulsome Action Plan was created to reduce or eliminate the privacy risk exposure.  Each Action Plan item was assigned to a person or group responsibility for its timely completion.  All risk mitigation activity will be completed within an acceptable timeframe.

Risk Area Identification and Categorization

In its Directive on Privacy Impact Assessment, Treasury Board has expressed that the PIA must include a completed risk identification and categorization section and make public those risk ratings.  A risk rating must be assigned to each risk areas named and described in Appendix C of the Directive on Privacy Impact Assessment.  The numbered risk scale is presented in an ascending order: the first level (1) represents the lowest level of potential risk for the risk area; the fourth level (4) represents the highest level of potential risk for the given risk area.  For this PIA the risk areas and associated risk levels are as follows:

Type of Program or Activity	Risk Level
Administration of Programs / Activity and Services 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

Type of Personal Information Involved and Context

Risk Level

Sensitive personal information, including detailed profiles, allegations or suspicions, bodily samples and/or the context surrounding the personal information is particularly sensitive. For example: personal information that reveals intimate details on the health, financial situation, religious or lifestyle choices of the individual and which, by association, reveals similar details about other individuals such as relatives.

4

Program or Activity Partners and Private Sector Involvement	Risk Level
Within the institution (amongst one or more programs within the same institution)	1

Duration of the Program or Activity	Risk Level
Short–term program A program or an activity that supports a short-term goal with an established sunset	2

Program Population	Risk Level
The program affects certain individuals for external administrative purposes.	3

Technology and Privacy
The Restorative Engagement Program developed a standalone system for program information, including personal information, as well as a restricted repository for documents collected from Class Members.

Information Transmission	Risk Level
The personal information is transmitted using wireless technologies.	4

In the Event of a Privacy Breach Impacting the Individual

In the event of a privacy breach, there is a potentially significant and lasting negative impact on the reputation of Class Members.  The records collected to support the restorative engagement process may provide graphic details of their victimization, including the names of perpetrators and witnesses.  Therefore, the breach of such information could impact their emotional well-being and reputation. Some experiences expressed by Class Members may have never been reported to a law enforcement organization, therefore, a breach could have significant and negative impacts on other persons, including alleged perpetrators (and witnesses) of unreported sexual misconduct incidents as well as perpetrators (and witnesses) of known/reported incidents.

Back to top