Montreal school board sued over privacy breach affecting hundreds of parents

A class-action lawsuit has been filed in Quebec Superior Court against the Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board after it circulated parents' sensitive personal information in an email sent July 2.

The document sent to parents of children attending Rosemere High School on the North Shore contained names, birth dates, social insurance numbers, phone numbers, email addresses, country of birth, emergency telephone numbers and contacts. The lawsuit alleges negligence in protecting sensitive information.

"We are currently in talks with the victims and cybersecurity experts to assess the potential damages," said a representative for Lambert Avocats, the law firm representing the parents.

Among the affected parents, reactions ranged from shock to frustration. One parent said that receiving their own social insurance number alongside those of other parents "came as a shock." They described the broader sentiment among parents as angry: "How is a document with so much sensitive information so easily attached to an email and not password protected or not safeguarded at a better level?"

The school board asked parents to delete the email and sign a form confirming they had done so — a request some found ironic given that the board itself had shared the information widely in the first place. "You sent out all the information and now I have to sign a document saying I'm not going to do it," one parent said. "It was just a little bit odd."

Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board chairperson James Di Sano said the incident would be reported to provincial authorities as required by law. The board has announced it will pay for credit monitoring and identity protection for three years for all those affected and will implement measures to strengthen its processes.