Thank you very much. I'm delighted to be here and to have this opportunity.
My name is Colin Bennett. I am a professor and the chair of the political science department at the University of Victoria. For 20 years I've been writing about this subject in Canada and overseas. I've been looking at the spread of surveillance and the kinds of problems that Professor Rosenberg has talked about. One of the things I saw as my role today was perhaps to give you a broader international and comparative context within which PIPEDA has to operate.
I want to stress four things in my remarks. First of all, I'd like to talk about that international context. It's important for you to understand that this legislation is one of a complete family of statutes that have been passed over 30 years by western countries. Secondly, I want to talk about oversight and enforcement. In this regard, I have been a complainant under PIPEDA, and I want to recount my experience of that to reinforce some of the things Professor Rosenberg has said. Thirdly, I want to talk about the law and the standard. This legislation is based on quite an innovative model of a CSA standard, and I think that is something that needs to be analyzed and understood. Finally, I simply want to ask the question, is PIPEDA working? I think you're going to get testimony on all sides of this question, and I have some views on the subject.
I did write some remarks, but I understand they have not yet been translated, and I would like the opportunity to make some further written recommendations at a later stage in this committee's hearings