Evidence of meeting #111 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was identification.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
That's correct.
Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
They do not engage in commercial activities.
Liberal
Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
In the main, political parties are not engaged in commercial activities, so in that regard they are similarly situated to non-profit organizations. The point is that by and large, companies and commercial organizations in terms of the private sector and government departments in the public sector are subject to privacy laws. There are very few exceptions. Political parties currently are among the very few exceptions.
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
For the sake of clarity, though, you can confirm that commercial organizations like Facebook and Twitter would be required to comply.
Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
With PIPEDA, yes.
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
Yes. Thank you so much.
Colonel, I think we heard in your testimony—if not, I apologize—that the voter turnout for armed forces members is much lower. To my understanding, it's 45%. Do you think the changes in Bill C-76 will have an impact on voter turnout?
Col Vihar Joshi
That is the intent. By giving more voter opportunities, if you will, people will be able to avail themselves of their right to vote, and we will see higher levels of participation.
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
Were the armed forces consulted by the department in terms of this bill?
Col Vihar Joshi
We were. As I spoke about earlier, in the report that was tabled, this committee agreed to a revision of the special voting rules portion. In that context, we were consulted by Elections Canada in looking at the amendments.
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
Are there any numbers with respect to civilians and members of the RCMP who were with Canadian Forces abroad? Were there any numbers to go along with that or is that outside your...?
Col Vihar Joshi
I can get those numbers if you wish. For some of them we would not necessarily have all the numbers, but for teachers and assistants outside Canada we can certainly get those numbers. It's not that high. It's a very small group of individuals at this time.
Liberal
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
I'll go back to you, Monsieur Therrien.
One of the issues I talked about—and you've suggested that there's no evidence to suggest that—is that in privacy principles there is a requirement that if you, the individual, ask “what information do you have about me?”, the organization is to then provide that information. What's to stop a coordinated campaign by supporters of one political party to overwhelm another political party?
Political parties don't necessarily have enormous staffs like a corporation may, and it's a type of organization that is completely different from a commercial activity. What would stop that type of behaviour?
Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
I suppose nothing would stop that behaviour, but I would say that this question of the right of access by individuals to what institutions have on them is near the top of the privacy safeguards under privacy principles.
It all starts with individuals knowing what companies and, as we are suggesting with our Elections Canada colleagues, parties have on them. How can individuals protect their sensitive personal information held by parties if they do not know what parties have about them? This is a pretty fundamental part of privacy protection.
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
I appreciate that it's a fundamental part of that, but when you're dealing with a different type of organization, where there can be individuals significantly motivated to engage in this type of behaviour that other corporate entities don't face, that's something that has to be taken into consideration, doesn't it?
Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
It has not been the experience in jurisdictions where parties are subject to privacy laws, but I—
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
I can appreciate that, but if we're talking about.... We've talked about Facebook, Twitter, social media and the ability to organize this type of activity, with bots and whatnot. Perhaps the fact that it hasn't happened in the past doesn't mean that it won't happen going forward, because the technology is ever advancing. In terms of an individual being able to set up a site to send out the requests, it's just a matter of typing it in. Again, the possibility does exist that this could be used as a type of political weapon against another political party.
Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Let's assume that is a possibility. You as a committee can adopt amendments to protect parties from that possibility, which is a finite situation. In terms of principles, I would say on what principle basis would parties say “no” to an individual who wants to know what the party has about them?
Conservative
Tom Kmiec Conservative Calgary Shepard, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I was going to ask you questions about the British Columbia experience, Mr. Therrien, you and those with you here today, but I want to continue on with something that Mr. Bittle said about commercial activity.
La Presse, with one of the biggest Quebec newspaper storied histories, has announced that it's converting into a charitable, not-for-profit organization. I want to hear from you if that will then make them exempt. Are they still undertaking commercial activity despite the status that they might take on in the structure of their organization? How would you view that?
I sit on the finance committee. There's talk in the federal budget about allowing all newspapers to convert themselves into not-for-profits. It's a difficult industry to be in right now. There have been a lot of layoffs. They're pressured by it. The activity they undertake is still considered commercial activity: it's the collection and distribution of information. Is this something that you feel would continue to be covered by PIPEDA in how they behave? Or would they then not be obliged to...?
Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
I'll turn the question over to my colleagues in a second, but the first thing to mention is that La Pressewould be governed by Quebec provincial legislation rather than by PIPEDA federally, but, of course, the situation could be the same in a province without provincial privacy legislation. It's an interesting question.
Regan, do you have an answer for that?
