The Canadian Association of Journalists would also be opposed to the idea of a commissioner who wears both hats. When he was justice minister, John Turner delivered a speech entitled “Twin Freedoms”. He was referring to both the freedom to privacy and also the freedom of information. I think that in this country we sometimes give greater priority to privacy than we do to freedom of information. We can even see this in the reporting of the actions of provincial information and privacy commissioners, who are repeatedly referred to as privacy commissioners even though they are talking about information issues. I think it would be a mistake to combine the two offices.
On April 19th, 2016. See this statement in context.