Good morning, Chair, and thank you very much to the committee for the invitation to appear this morning, particularly alongside—it's a great pleasure—my colleague Commissioner Denham from the U.K. In fact, only a few short weeks ago, I was in the U.K. assisting Commissioner Denham with the investigation to which she made reference.
It wasn't long after my return to British Columbia that I was conferring with Commissioner Therrien at the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada agreeing to jointly conduct an investigation into Facebook and the B.C. company, AggregateIQ, a company with which this committee is very familiar. That investigation continues. Of course, I'm not at liberty to disclose much about it until our work is complete in that regard.
What I would like to do this morning is pick up on themes referenced by Commissioner Denham that relate to the broad aspects of your committee's mandate. I'm referring to seeking out legislative remedies that will help assure Canadians of the privacy of their data and the integrity of our democratic and electoral processes.
Beyond investigating companies like Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, which are critical inquiries to be sure, it is also important for Canada's political parties themselves to take some measures for restoring confidence in the democratic processes in our country. I would invite you, as my colleague Commissioner Therrien has, to subject yourselves to accountability measures regarding the way in which you collect and use the information of Canadian voters.
A question worth pondering, I think, is whether the Cambridge Analytica scandal would have happened were it not for the increasing demands on political parties to gather and analyze personal data in the hopes of understanding it and using it to persuade voters. Democracy requires the citizenry to have trust and confidence in the political process, and a significant element of that process concerns how political parties collect and use the personal information that belongs to Canadians.
Parliament and some provincial legislators have created offices that oversee the collection and use of personal information by private and public bodies. Curiously, that oversight, with few exceptions, does not apply to political parties. British Columbia is an exception. B.C.'s Personal Information Protection Act, or PIPA, applies to all organizations in B.C. It is substantially similar to PIPEDA and for that reason generally supplants PIPEDA's authority in my province.
Political parties in my province have been subject to PIPA since its enactment in 2004. In the 14 years that have since passed, I can assure you that democracy has continued to thrive unimpeded in British Columbia. We have not heard concerns or suggestions that laws protecting the personal information of voters restricts the ability of political parties or candidates to engage voters.
Political parties in B.C. can and do collect personal information about voters, but they do so under the same reasonable legal responsibilities and obligations that apply to other organizations.
Generally, this means political parties get information with the consent of voters accompanied by a clear explanation of how and for what purpose that information will be used. I used the words “generally” and “with consent” because there are legislative provisions that allow parties to collect information without consent, specifically to get the voters list and other voter data from Elections BC. These provisions, however, come with a condition that the party receiving the information must provide a satisfactory privacy policy to the Chief Electoral Officer.
PIPA also gives citizens the legal right to request and correct the personal information that political parties collect from them and to register a complaint if necessary. These complaints are adjudicated by my office. A citizen's right to exert control over their personal information is a fundamental principle of privacy law. It is a principle strengthened by the EU's general data protection regulation, which Commissioner Denham just made reference to, and which comes into effect in Europe in just a few days.
You may be interested to know that my office is now undertaking a broad investigation of how the elected parties in our legislature collect and use voters' personal information. Those parties, I would note, have fully co-operated with our office's investigation. I expect that the investigation will result in recommendations and guidance that will help parties improve their privacy practices.
Of course, I know that recent proposed amendments to the Canada Elections Act will require political parties to adopt a policy to protect personal information and to provide it to the Chief Electoral Officer. These proposals are only a minimal step forward. They attempt to address the principle of transparency, but that is only one element of a proper data protection regime.
The proposed amendments do not require parties to respond to a voter's request for the information the party holds about them, nor does it allow a voter the right to ask a party to correct inaccurate information about them. Perhaps most important, there is no provision for an impartial third party to hear and determine a voter complaint. These basic legal standards have been a part of British Columbia law for years and are the norm in many western democracies. There should be nothing for political parties to fear in any of these legal obligations. In fact, implementation will do nothing but enhance the confidence of citizens in their democratic institutions.
With that, Mr. Chair, we are happy to take any questions you may have.