Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you very much to the committee for having me here today as part of this conversation.
Mr. Chair, as you can well imagine, we were very concerned when we found out late last week that 13 different federal departments and agencies have this spyware attached to them. They include, but are not limited to, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Environment Canada, Canada Revenue Agency, Global Affairs Canada—and as a former employee of Global Affairs Canada, I'm especially troubled by this agency—Canada Border Services Agency, the Department of National Defence and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Several other institutions are using this spyware technology. As I said, we became aware of this late last week.
This is being used across government, Mr. Chair. This isn't limited to a single department or agency. What's even more concerning is what this spyware is capturing. It runs the gamut of all communications across government. It includes all the text messages employees have sent to their friends and family. Of course, we know we all use our phones on a daily basis. The sensitive information in these text messages includes information about where your children go to school and whether you have to pick them up, your place of work perhaps and any medical appointments you might have. The most sensitive information is communicated through these text messages.
Can you imagine your entire contact list being made public, being in the hands of government and being exposed to being released or shared with those you had not intended to share your contacts with?
It's photos. I enjoy taking photos, especially at this time of year, when there are so many beautiful decorations across the capital and elsewhere, but having your entire photo library shared across government is absolutely concerning.
It's travel history, as well. The government, through this spyware, has a history of your travel. That's very concerning as well.
This spyware can also be used to access cloud-based data. What isn't in the cloud in this day and age? This is what the government has exposed our public servants to—having their cloud-based information across the network.
I for one would certainly not like my Internet search history put out for the public to see, in terms of what movies I'm interested in, perhaps, or the items I am considering buying my family for the holidays. This is the most personal of information we're talking about here, which has been gathered through this spyware and is now in the hands of government.
We have content that we have deleted in an effort to dispose of it. Certainly, we've all heard the fact that, once it's on the Internet, it's out there forever. Who knew that, with this government, once it's on your phone, it's with the government forever? Apparently, according to the report here, this is the case.
Finally, it's social media activity—every single post you ever liked, everything you ever reposted and every comment you ever made. If you are with one of these federal agencies, this is now in the hands of government. It's very concerning.
Public servants are concerned as well. They are gravely concerned. They wonder “why any government office would need such access to people's private information”, yet this is where we are at this point, where the government has access to this private information.
I'll quote two witnesses who were, fortunately, added to the list.
Ms. Jennifer Carr, the president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, said:
We need to make sure that if our personal information is gathered, that we know about what information is gathered, how it's being used and how it could be affected if there are others who were able to access that.
My goodness, if you have any breach of public information in this day and age, a responsible corporation immediately notifies you of it. In this situation, our public service wasn't even being notified of the collection of this information, never mind the potential breach of it.
Here's another quote:
In a statement...Public Service Alliance of Canada national president Chris Aylward—
That's another witness I see you have, fortunately, added.
—called the use of such technology without a privacy assessment “alarming” and “shows a deliberate lack of transparency and accountability by federal departments and agencies.”
Those words could not be closer to the truth, Mr. Chair.
To add insult to injury, yesterday, in my role as shadow minister to the President of the Treasury Board, in the effort to get a response from her—many media outlets were denied any communication from her, any statements—I sent a letter asking her, under section 3.2 of the directive on privacy impact assessment, to take responsibility for this, because I hear my Liberal colleagues saying, “Oh, you know, we have these measures in place. They should be enforced.”
The Treasury Board does have oversight of this under section 3.2, where it states:
The President of the Treasury Board...holds general responsibility for registering all [privacy impact assessments] and reviewing the manner in which they are maintained and managed in all government institutions....
We also see in the article that “those departments' use of the [spyware] did not undergo a privacy impact assessment as required” under 3.2 of the PIA, which is under the responsibility of the President of the Treasury Board. That adds insult to injury. This just gets worse.
In that letter, Mr. Chair, I hope you will be assured, my Conservative colleagues here will be assured, my Bloc and my NDP colleagues will be assured and the government will be assured that I have called upon her to immediately enforce compliance, and if those privacy impact assessments are still not initiated by year-end, then she must follow through on the obligations by enforcing the consequences of non-compliance. That is certainly the very least that can be done when we find out that this spyware is in place. After the lack of oversight by the Treasury Board and the lack of oversight by this government, this can at least begin to be made right.
In conclusion, I think what concerns us most, on this side, my Conservative colleagues and me, is what was referred to in an article that was just published yesterday. That is the idea of—and I want everyone to hear this phrase—the “normalization of surveillance”. It is terrifying.
I think all Canadians should be consumed with the normalization of surveillance—I'm not even going to get into the digital ID issue here—and they have good reason to be concerned, as we have found in this information that was uncovered last week.
I cannot state enough the urgency and the necessity of this study, as brought forward, and thank you very much to my colleague for doing so. This must be addressed, and it must be addressed immediately, to quell the concerns of the public service and to further provide Canadians with confidence that this government gives a darn about their privacy.
Mr. Chair, I, too, would like to move an amendment, at this moment, to build upon the motion that was put forward. If the moment is right, I will read it into the record.
