Formal Complaint to the Consumer Protection Bureau of Manitoba

At this point, I am also filing a complaint against both Equifax and Citadel Credit of Canada (Shapes' Collection Agency) for violating The Personal Investigations Act

Citadel has violated by providing disputed evidence to a personal reporting bureau (Equifax) and failing to provide me with proper documentation to validate the debt. Since I have supplied them with evidence that proves, reasonably, that the debt is invalid they are required to either show me their proof or to correct their files and update the report to Equifax.

Equifax is also in violation of this act for failing to properly validate the information that I have disputed. The law says they must "verify" it, something that they have not done. Rather than verify it, they choose just to rely on the word of the Collection Agency to confirm ir(who obviously have a financial motive to lie).

So both of these companies are in violation of The Personal Investigations Act. Here's an excerpt from my formal complaint:

I would like to file a complaint under the personal investigations act.

Citadel Credit of Canada, a collection agency in Manitoba, has knowingly
supplied false information to someone making a personal report about me
(Equifax Canada Inc.) They have told Equifax that there is a debt
against me, that does not exist. I have proof that disputes the validity
of the debt. Under section 15 of the personal investigations act, they
are guilty of an offense. I have supplied them with evidence that the
debt is invalid in the form of a cancellation notice of a contract in a
timely manner, therefore they should reasonably be aware that the
information they are supplying is false.



In addition to this, I would like to make a similar complaint against
Equifax Canada Inc. (a credit reporting bureau in Ontario) I have sent
them a request to verify and correct the inaccurate information, but so
far, they have refused to do so. Equifax's "verification" process
consists of asking the reporting agency (Citadel Credit of Canada)
whether the information is true. The dictionnary, however, defines
verification as "to establish the truth, accuracy, or reality of a
claim". Equifax does not do this in their verification process, instead,
they simply ask the reporting agency (who has a financial motive to say
that it is truthful) whether or not the record is accurate. Even though
I have supplied them with evidence to the contrary, they still maintain
that they have "verified" the information.

Under section 17.1, I would request that the director investigate both
of these agencies to ensure that they are in complaince with the act and
to force compliance and/or prosecute both of these agencies if they are
found to be in violation.

I would also request, that since I have, on several occasions, made both
of these parties aware of their mistakes/violations that you make note
of the fact that they should not be exempt from civil liability under
section 16 due to the fact they they "ought to be reasonably aware that
part or all of the information in the report ... is false"

I'll be faxing this along with my documentation to the consumer protection office. As this is a formal complaint, the commissioner now has the right to levy fines and force compliance.