When Debbie Bennett prepares to hire a new employee she has to be careful to conduct the appropriate level of reference and security checks without running afoul of human rights and privacy law.

Ms. Bennett, vice-president of human resources and finance at the Ottawa Citizen and the incoming chairwoman of the Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario, says: “You can’t do a background check willy-nilly.” Rather, she says, there has got to be a “bona fide reason behind it.”

For example, Ms. Bennett says, she would not hire somebody with access to money without checking to see if there were charges for embezzlement or fraud on their record. “I don’t care if it’s a DWI charge unless it’s an obligation of the job.”