My observation would first be that Colin Bennett is very persuasive. I'd say as a result of some of the work he has done, the Canadian Bar Association's access and privacy branches have been engaged with this very issue. Not only did that involve the opportunity to hear Professor Bennett talking about some of the issues, but we've also, as an access and privacy branch, broached that with the Department of Justice and the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer to explore what can be done.
The CBA has no formal position and certainly isn't here to offer a solution, but we're mindful that the former chief electoral officer of Canada has recommended changes to the Elections Act that would require certain standards in terms of protecting personal information collected by political parties. We're mindful that it may be my friend Colin Bennett's persuasiveness, but I noticed that the chief electoral officer in British Columbia has, in an annual report, recommended it's high time that there be some attention paid to developing rules around this issue.
I think the difficulty is determining the best vehicle for doing it. I think there's a growing support and a growing recognition that this area ought not to be left unregulated. This is simply because of some of the huge breaches in the U.S. involving political parties and political organizations that have amassed huge amounts of personal information and then lost it. People are starting to be more concerned about it.
The question is, as Professor Bennett said, what's the ideal vehicle? It clearly wouldn't be, I think, the federal Privacy Act, which is focusing on government institutions. It might be some changes to the Canada Elections Act. It might be developing separate legislation to deal with it. It doesn't nicely fit under PIPEDA, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, either. either. Maybe it would be brand new legislation....
I simply want to say that there is this increasing recognition that there needs to be some means of providing protection for citizens when their personal information is collected, used, and disclosed by political parties.