Information & Ethics committee  It's not unlimited power, no. You have to remember that a parliament, a legislature, a government can do whatever they want. I opposed PharmaNet in British Columbia. Glen Clark and his government did it. That's perfectly acceptable. No one is trying to make these privacy watchdogs have absolute power of any sort.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, I definitely think the policy should be legislated, but I don't want a whole bunch of cookie-cutter PIAs every time they change the personal information system. Any significant personal information system at Health Canada or Service Canada or Revenue Canada--whatever they're called nowadays--should have a privacy impact assessment done so that Canadians who are interested can go to the website and find out, “Oh, this is what they do with my personal information.”

Information & Ethics committee  I don't know why they're getting so many complaints federally. I think I read in the last 24 hours, or somebody told me, that 50% of the complaints are from Corrections Canada. Is that right? Anyway, it's a huge number. I was laughing to myself, as I was thinking about this, that it's a good thing....

Information & Ethics committee  In British Columbia we can ignore requests and say they're frivolous and vexatious. I think that's what the language is. What I learned in 1993, when I finally ran something, having been a professor all my life, was that a lot of people have various things happen to them that they want to change.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, definitely.

Information & Ethics committee  I was asked the same kind of question by the former NDP member Dave Barrett, when I first met him in 1994 or 1995 and he had just published his memoirs. Every so often people certainly ask if there is a conflict in being the Freedom of Information Commissioner and the Privacy Commissioner.

Information & Ethics committee  That's because you're making her, under the current Privacy Act, pursue so many complaints that are almost useless. That's why she wants to get out of having to investigate every complaint. I think it's scandalous that it takes a year to get a privacy complaint investigated. It's difficult for your constituents.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, but it appears to go very slowly because they can't say that someone is what I call the “frequent flyer”. I had 100 cases with one character. It was ridiculous. I tried to put him in the penalty box. I did for two or three years. The courts said I could only put him in the penalty box for a year.

Information & Ethics committee  That's a credible position. Remember, there are 217,000 public servants; there are 140 staff at the Privacy Commissioner's office. There are 86,000 people at Canada Post who are all supposed to be complying with the Privacy Act.

Information & Ethics committee  When I circulated my paper to the Ontario commissioner, to my friends.... I know all these commissioners. I work with them. I do consulting work for them. They employ me to do things. In fact, I think the Privacy Commissioner can and should use more consultants and law firms to help her when she has huge backlogs.

Information & Ethics committee  My point is you have to be looking forward, not backwards, as to what you need, and that's where the order-making power is very significant.

Information & Ethics committee  I was dreaming about this morning's appearance. Maybe it was a nightmare, and I didn't record it properly.

Information & Ethics committee  Almost all of them were Freedom of Information Act decisions, but many of them had a privacy component. I'm giving you a lot of information in a relatively big hurry. The power I had was to issue an order to stop doing this with personal information or start doing something with personal information.

Information & Ethics committee  Most of the privacy stuff is settled through investigations, complaints, audits, and site visits. I thought you were going to talk about judicial review.

Information & Ethics committee  Good.