BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association
Your Data Your Rights
THUNDER BAY – City police are not recommending Crime Stoppers when asking for information from the public, for now.
The federal government is currently investigating a cybersecurity incident involving tips shared with Crime Stoppers programs across Canada, and a class action lawsuit has been filed.
A spokesperson with the Thunder Bay police has confirmed the service will be pausing its promotion of the anonymous tip line in its media releases while “the impact of the cybersecurity incident continues to be assessed.”
“We continue to encourage anyone who wants to provide information related to a crime or public safety concern to contact our non-emergency telephone line at (807) 684-1200, or our online reporting system if applicable,” the police service says.
The decision follows that of other police services in the region that paused promotions of the tip line, including taking links to Crime Stoppers off their websites, last week.
As of the time of writing, Crime Stoppers is still being promoted on the Thunder Bay police service’s website.
On Oct. 27, the privacy commissioner of Canada, Philippe Dufresne, opened an investigation related to a cybersecurity incident, which will focus on Navigate360, the third-party organization that provides Crime Stoppers Canada with a tip management platform.
The investigation will examine the cybersecurity that organization had in place at the time of the breach to determine whether they complied with the country’s private-sector privacy law, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner said in a release.
A massive data breach exposed the private information and tips provided by at least 1.5 million Canadians between Nov. 21, 2025, and March 5, 2026, According to a class action lawsuit filed by Consumer Law Group.
In October, Navigate 360 disclosed for the first time that its systems were compromised despite knowing since late March. Navigate did not provide any notice to affected individuals and made no public statements until Oct., the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit also claims an estimated 850,000 tips retained and stored by Navigate 360 included personally identifiable information about tipsters, individuals named in allegations, and Crime Stoppers staff and police, including sensitive information like street addresses, phone numbers, personal email addresses, licence plate numbers, banking details, and social insurance numbers.
Consumer Law Group is encouraging anyone who provided a tip to and is interested in joining the lawsuit to provide their contact information to the firm.
The chair of the Thunder Bay Crime Stoppers chapter, Solade Nicol, deferred all comments to the national president of Crime Stoppers Canada, David Foster. Newswatch has contacted Crime Stoppers Canada for further comment.
The Local Journalism Initiative (LJI) is a federally funded program to add coverage in under-covered areas or on under-covered issues. This content is created and submitted by participating publishers and is not edited. Access can also be gained by registering and logging in at: https://lji-ijl.ca
You can support trusted and verified news content like this.
FIPA’s news monitor subscribers, donors and funders help make these available to everyone rather than behind a paywall. We appreciate every contribution because it makes a difference.
If you found this article interesting and useful, please consider contributing here.
