Evidence of meeting #123 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was elections.
A video is available from Parliament.
11:45 a.m.
Constitutional and Legal Adviser, National Board of Directors, Liberal Party of Canada
Absolutely, and it's also just not well-tailored to the political context where you're dealing with a mostly volunteer organization.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
Whether you're subject to PIPEDA or some other laws, let's say we're talking about the parameters of use. You have this database. For example, should you be able to commercialize a database? Do you have any thoughts on that?
You've collected a ton of data. People are making money all over the place.
I'll start with you, Mr. Calvert.
11:45 a.m.
Constitutional and Legal Adviser, National Board of Directors, Liberal Party of Canada
Absolutely not.
11:45 a.m.
Privacy Officer and Director of Membership, Conservative Party of Canada
I would say the same, yes. We have no—
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
How about this? I have charities and charities often swap data. They say, “We have this pool of donors, and if you tell us your pool of donors, we'll tell you our pool of donors.” Now you're not making money from your database, but you have a very valuable database and someone else may have a valuable database, not your competitors but some other company. Should you be able to trade that data, giving them some of your data and getting some of their data so that, together, you've built a stronger database?
11:45 a.m.
Director of Operations, New Democratic Party
I think that Canadians expect that the information that we receive from Elections Canada and gather through our outreach efforts will be protected and kept within our database, so I think that's probably not something that we would find effective, efficient or correct.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
You should not be allowed to share it, not for commercial benefit and not even for sharing to gather other data, like swapping data.
11:50 a.m.
Director of Operations, New Democratic Party
I think that raises some serious questions, and if put on the spot, I would say probably not.
11:50 a.m.
Constitutional and Legal Adviser, National Board of Directors, Liberal Party of Canada
I'm not sure that I have an answer for you other than the more general answer, which is that we don't do it. We certainly don't share our information.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
You don't do it because you don't do it, but theoretically some fourth person from a fourth party could do it, and we're now trying to figure out the parameters of use.
Do you think we should allow you to do it or not?
11:50 a.m.
Constitutional and Legal Adviser, National Board of Directors, Liberal Party of Canada
I'm not sure that I have a position on that, but I'd be happy to get back to you.
11:50 a.m.
Privacy Officer and Director of Membership, Conservative Party of Canada
As covered by our privacy policy, we collect it for the purpose of electioneering, for running a campaign, for contacting them for the purposes of winning an election. What you're describing doesn't fit with our policy, so no.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
11:50 a.m.
Privacy Officer and Director of Membership, Conservative Party of Canada
In that it would be using our data that we have collected for a purpose other than getting us votes in the next election.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
Right now you're writing the rules for yourselves. I believe we should write the rules for you.
11:50 a.m.
Privacy Officer and Director of Membership, Conservative Party of Canada
Right.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
I'm asking you the question in this light, and I'd like an answer now. Do you think we should allow you to do that, yes or no?
11:50 a.m.
Privacy Officer and Director of Membership, Conservative Party of Canada
As I said before, if that's your decision as a governing Parliament—
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
But you're also saying that the Conservative Party doesn't do that—
11:50 a.m.
Privacy Officer and Director of Membership, Conservative Party of Canada
Correct.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
—and that you'd be comfortable with a law that doesn't allow you to share that data.
11:50 a.m.
Privacy Officer and Director of Membership, Conservative Party of Canada
That would be in line with our policy, so yes.