FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
09 March 2026
QUEEN’S PARK – Dr. Adil Shamji, Member of Provincial Parliament for Don Valley East, is demanding accountability following news that a previously reported data breach involving the personal health information of homecare patients in Ontario was, in fact, a ransom attack.
“Nearly one year ago, Ontario Health atHome became the target of a cybersecurity incident that led to the compromise of personal health data for at least 200,000 Ontario homecare patients. When this happened, the government failed to fulfill its legal obligation to notify the Information and Privacy Commissioner until ten weeks after the breach occurred, and did not notify affected patients at all until the information was publicly revealed by Dr. Shamji.
“Until now, the specific details of the cybersecurity incident were unknown, but new findings reveal that personal health information was encrypted by malicious parties who refused to restore access unless a ransom was paid. The sinister motive of the perpetrators now indicates a heightened risk to homecare patients and reveals a previously concealed element of criminality which the Premier and Minister of Health have failed in their duty to disclose.
“Our province was targeted for extortion by criminals in an operation that can only be described as a shakedown,” said Shamji. “The Premier failed to respond as the law requires, and has consistently deceived the public ever since by failing to reveal details unless forced to do so.”
“Many questions remain for which Ontario patients and taxpayers deserve answers. For example, at a certain point, healthcare data was encrypted by criminals and then was subsequently decrypted, suggesting that a ransom might have actually been paid. This is alarming – both from the perspective of accountability for taxpayer dollars, but also because payment of ransom under the Criminal Code of Canada can be illegal under specific circumstances.
“Doug Ford has been deceptive about the scale of this data breach and must immediately answer:
- How much was the ransom?
- Was the ransom paid?
- How long has this information been known by himself and the Minister of Health?
- Is this what he means when he says his government will “Protect Ontario”?
“Ontario Health atHome has been a colossal failure since it was first created in 2024, plagued by province-wide medication shortages, depleted supplies of vital homecare equipment, and unacceptable delays in care. Until now, these problems could be attributed to gross incompetence,” said Shamji. “This latest scandal reveals negligence and deception that cannot be possible without direction from Sylvia Jones and Doug Ford.”