I don't know how closely you have been following our study, which began earlier this year after the Cambridge Analytica-Facebook-AggregateIQ scandal, but by an unfortunate matter of timing, the final report of this study was tabled this morning before your testimony.
I would draw to your attention, with regard to your recommendations that third party political players not be subject to too much oversight, scrutiny or regulation, that recommendation 2 says:
That the Government of Canada amend the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act [PIPEDA] in order to subject political third parties to it.
Recommendation 3—and, again, this was unanimously agreed by this committee—says:
That the Government of Canada grant the Office of Privacy Commissioner and/or Elections Canada the mandate and authority to conduct proactive audits on political parties and political third parties regarding their privacy practices and to issue...fines.
With regard to the appearance of the three major political parties in Canada before this committee, only the Liberal Party resisted and argued against the application or the extension of PIPEDA to include political activities. The Conservative Party said, “Write the rules, and we will follow them.” In effect, so did the NDP.
Could you live with the recommendations that this committee has made in its report, tabled today, should the government act on them?