Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning Mr. Chair and members of the Committee. Thank you for the invitation to appear before you today.
My name is Mario Mainville. I am the chief digital officer at the Competition Bureau. Joining me today is my colleague Pierre-Yves Guay, deputy commissioner of the Cartels Directorate.
The Competition Bureau is a law enforcement agency that protects and promotes competition for the benefit of Canadian consumers and businesses. We administer and enforce the Competition Act by investigating and taking action to address anti-competitive business practices that harm consumers, competition and our economy.
We investigate criminal offences such as price fixing, bid rigging and mass marketing fraud as well as civil provisions such as deceptive marketing practices and abuse of market power through restrictive trade practices.
We also review mergers to ensure that they do not substantially harm competition.
Finally, we advocate for procompetitive government policies and regulations.
It is solely within the context of investigations that the Bureau uses the technological tools at issue in the Committee's study.
The targets of these investigations can be sophisticated firms or individuals operating in a deliberately covert or fraudulent manner. Rapidly advancing technology may act as a vehicle permitting users to communicate with others to implement possible anti-competitive conduct and can assist in the perpetration of anti-competitive conduct while acting as a storage device to house information related to anti-competitive activity. In these cases, the Commissioner may apply to the courts for a search warrant in order to gather all necessary information.
It's important to recognize that the Competition Bureau cannot make a decision to search a party's electronic data on its own authority without consent. The bureau must submit a court document setting out the grounds justifying the issuance of the search warrant and the need to search the computer system. The court could then decide to authorize the commissioner to conduct a search of the identified premises and to copy or seize certain records or other things for examination. Our use of these tools is therefore limited by the scope and conditions outlined in these search warrants.
The bureau recognizes the importance of respecting individual privacy rights while executing a search warrant. The issuance of a search warrant by a judicial authority is a safeguard to ensure that searches are conducted with proper legal authorization. Law enforcement agencies are expected to handle and manage the personal information obtained during the investigation responsibly and in accordance with law and constitutional principles. Privacy considerations are relevant, and the bureau has policies and procedures in place to ensure compliance with privacy principles and legal requirements. The bureau works closely with legal counsel from the Department of Justice to ensure that our practices align with both criminal law procedures and privacy obligations. Additionally, any subsequent use, retention and disclosure of information collected during the execution of a search warrant is governed by Government of Canada policies on retention and disposition.
With that, we look forward to discussing these tools with you today. Thank you, and we welcome your questions.