Fastball association investigating how players' medical information ended up at dump

Yellowknife's Minor Fastball Association says it's investigating how nearly 200 children's medical information ended up at the city's dump.

The files were found on Sunday, and included players' names, health card numbers, medical information, and their parents' contact information.

Kristal Melanson is the association's president. She believes the information was in team rosters that were incorrectly stored in an equipment shed.

That shed was cleaned out this past weekend. Melanson believes the files may have been among items left at the dump.

"Coaches are instructed to keep information at all practices and the game, which might explain how it came to be with the equipment," she explained, though she added the breach is still being investigated and this is just a theory for now.

Examining policies 

Melanson said the minor fastball league's board is taking this breach very seriously.

"The board will be examining all the policies and practices related to the collection, the storage and disposal of information in the coming days," she said.  

"We'll also be providing additional guidance to our volunteer coaches and assistant coaches on how to store the information, and how to dispose of that information once the season is complete."

At this point, Melanson said she is in contact with the person who found the files and is in the process of getting them back.

Melanson said the association doesn't know how many players' information was compromised, but an article by Cabin Radio said records were found including information on 191 children between the ages of four and 15. 

The files were reportedly found by Megan Clark, the public service librarian at the Yellowknife Public Library. 

'It's an eye opener'

Yellowknife city councillor Niels Konge's son was one of the players affected. He said he was upset when he first learned of the breach but now thinks this can be a teaching moment for local associations and community members alike.

"It's an eye opener for everybody to go and help these organizations," he said.

"Volunteer, help both make sure that the policies are in place and being followed to ensure these things don't happen, because it takes a lot of work to get the policies in place and to follow up and to make sure it doesn't happen."

The fastball association said it will take about a month to review and update their policies around storing players' information.

The territory's assistant privacy commissioner, Dylan Gray, said with the current information he has, the risk of identity theft with this breach is "fairly low".