My understanding is that this was a recommendation pertaining mostly to the question of order-making power. The Newfoundland model was a hybrid model, and the hybrid model had much to recommend it over an order-making power.
I would say that I don't have a firm view on that particular debate, except that I lean heavily towards the order-making power. I would encourage you, in thinking that through, to take the perspective of the individual rights holder here in terms of privacy, and ask which is going to be better for them in terms of which of these models puts more of a burden on the individual to go to court to vindicate their rights rather than have it dealt with in this other process. We have an access to justice crisis here, and putting burdens on individuals to take it up in court when they are supposed to have these robust rights is, I think, unrealistic. Recommendations from the past that have focused on courts just don't take that into account. That's one thing.
The other thing is that the debate seems to involve a lot of hand-waving and anecdotal evidence. We have multiple jurisdictions in Canada that have different ways of doing this. In Ontario there's order-making power. In B.C. there's order-making power. If there are questions about whether that changes the dynamic by shifting away from an ombudsman model or whether it makes for a more contentious relationship with the government, certainly there are jurisdictions you can get evidence from. This could be a more factually based inquiry. You can take a look at what's going on in those jurisdictions and find that out.
The only other thing I would say is that in these charter contexts that I'm extremely concerned about, having a strong stick is good, because in these charter contexts, the individual is in a conflicting relationship with the state, whereas in the more administrative context, where the state's administering a social program, there's not that strong conflict. There's some conflict, but it's not that fundamental conflict.
I do think that from that perspective, order-making power has a lot to say for it, but I don't have a definitive view.