We offered to provide advice. Is it normal that we not intervene in every case? I think the reality is that we, as an office, cannot be involved in pre-authorizing or reviewing every case of data collection or disclosure that occurs in Canada. We give general advice that we hope is followed. We investigate complaints.
I think that in the new law our office should have greater powers to proactively audit the practices of governments and the private sector, but unfortunately it is just not realistic to expect that we will pre-approve every use or disclosure of data in this country. At the end of the day, it is to the benefit of Canada that data is shared, obviously for good reasons—for legitimate commercial interests, for the public good, and not for illegitimate surveillance as we've seen in certain cases.
Because these practices occur all the time, we just cannot be there all the time.