Information & Ethics Committee on Oct. 19th, 2010

[Carole Freeman, Bloc, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I have two questions for you.

My first question deals with national security. On page 54 of your report, you mention other measures related to public security. At the Olympic and Paralympic Games, you played a role alongside the organizers, who asked you to work with them. Can I know what the nature of your role was? As is mentioned in your report, the Olympic Games were the biggest event since the attacks of September 11. I find this interesting and significant. What was your role?

[Jennifer Stoddart]

On the one hand, our role was—

[Carole Freeman, Bloc, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

Could you please respond briefly, because I have another question for you.

[Jennifer Stoddart]

On the one hand, our role was to work with the police, the RCMP, to make officers aware of issues relating to privacy protection, and, on the other hand, to inform members of the public of their right to privacy.

[Carole Freeman, Bloc, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

What exactly did you do to help the police in terms of privacy protection?

[Jennifer Stoddart]

We met with police forces several times.

[Carole Freeman, Bloc, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

What kinds of problems were you expecting?

[Jennifer Stoddart]

I will try to give you a brief answer. At that time, there had been allegations that the police was misusing people's personal information at the border with the United States, that activists in Vancouver were under increased surveillance, and that there was a database on the activists, and so on. This was before the games. Nothing happened, but I remember that the atmosphere was fairly tense before the games.

[Carole Freeman, Bloc, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

As a Quebecker, I feel very strongly about what happened at the G8 and G20 summits. Many of my fellow citizens went to the summits and were arrested, and they told me that their personal information had been used. At the G8 and G20 summits, did police forces ask you for help or to work with them as far as personal information was concerned? I really want to understand why people called on you. Were you called in to help the police target activists? Were you asked to work with authorities at the G8 and G20 summits?

[Jennifer Stoddart]

No.

[Carole Freeman, Bloc, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

You were not called upon?

[Jennifer Stoddart]

As far as I know, nobody called upon us for that. Further, I do not believe that those events fell under federal jurisdiction. As far as I know, the Ontario Provincial Police and the Toronto Police do not fall under federal jurisdiction.

[Carole Freeman, Bloc, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

The RCMP was there, as well.

[Jennifer Stoddart]

The RCMP was there, but—

[Carole Freeman, Bloc, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

The RCMP falls under federal jurisdiction. Did it not occur to you to offer your services to the RCMP to help the other police forces use personal information to target the activists?

[Jennifer Stoddart]

On the one hand, we had just put the Olympic Games behind us, and so we thought that the lessons from the games had been learned and integrated. On the other hand, I do not believe that we were called upon because, contrary to the games, nobody had expected these events to happen.

[Carole Freeman, Bloc, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

It was a dark moment in the history of democracy and the respect of people's privacy. What happened at the G8 and G20 summits was absolutely horrible.

Here's my second question. I know that in 2009, the world we live in, which is increasingly online and borderless, was the dominant theme of the work carried out by the Office of the Commissioner. In fact, last April, it was very surprising that you established the four following priorities: information technology, national security, the integrity and protection of personal identity, as well as genetic technologies.

Can you tell me what the major challenges and priorities will be for you in the coming year?

[Jennifer Stoddart]

We will maintain these four priorities because it will take years for us to study them in depth. Over the coming years, they will remain very significant priorities. Indeed, our objectives will include increasing the efficiency of our office and improving our contacts with the business community, which will happen, for instance, because we will be present in Toronto.

[Carole Freeman, Bloc, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

Thank you, Ms. Stoddart.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

Thank you, Ms. Freeman.

Mrs. Davidson, five minutes.

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I'm going to share my time with Mrs. Block, if I may.

I notice in your opening remarks that you talk about developing policy guideline documents and that you're working on them in four key areas: national security, information technology, genetic technology, and identity integrity.

Can you elaborate a bit more on that? Who are you collaborating with to develop these? What do you expect the advantage will be to have them done? What is the timeline?

[Jennifer Stoddart]

We're working right now on the national security document. There's a bit of a debate, in fact, about who it will be useful to. First of all, it's a public document, of course, but the idea is that it is directed to government policy-makers who have to take security considerations into account and also, to the extent possible, protect privacy as well.

That is the one we're working on. We work with a variety of people: scholars, people in government security, and the police community. We have a former foreign affairs minister on the committee, and we have members of the advocacy groups that are very interested in civil liberties, to try to get a complement of different points of view so we have some kind of general guidance on what, from the point of view of the Privacy Commissioner, we consider to be a good balance between these two objectives. That's the one that we've really come the farthest with. It's a similar process in terms of genetic information.

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Thank you.

I'll refer it now to Ms. Block.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

In a follow-up to my previous question and perhaps to my colleague's question around your public education efforts, I want to turn to your PIPEDA report. In that report, it points out that in 2009 there was a 20% drop in new inquiries, from 6,344 in 2008, to 5,095 in 2009.

I'm wondering if you can tell me why you think that is the case. Is it similar to the drop in complaints when it comes to the Privacy Act? Could I get your comments on that, please?

[Jennifer Stoddart]

We think it's something like what happens in the Privacy Act and my previous response, but this time we saw the drop in inquiries accompanied by a rise in the number of people who go to our website. We now have about 2.5 million on our website, and we're trying to continue that, because people can get the information they want. We have a children's website, our youth privacy website, a blog, and so on.