I think it's an important issue to unpack a little bit. Part of the rationale here is to understand that having an expert tribunal focused on the issues and dedicated to this work does offer many benefits to the administration of justice and to ensuring that the law is effectively and consistently applied. It also makes sure that the commissioner and the OPC are central in both the fact-finding and the investigation. The role of the OPC becomes strengthened by having an expert tribunal available to hear the appeals.
In a situation where a tribunal gives deference to the Privacy Commissioner, that is a much more robust and powerful hand for the Privacy Commissioner to play, even if the case does not go to the tribunal at the end of the day. What I mean by that is that it actually motivates parties to work with the commissioner to resolve their cases because they recognize that, if they choose to take it to the tribunal, they would be doing so on the basis of playing a weaker hand in front of that tribunal because of the deference the tribunal must show to the commissioner.
That is not the case with the courts, and we've seen that over the last 20 years. A number of cases have gone to the courts, and the Privacy Commissioner has lost 70% of the cases in which he or she was a primary appellant. Seventy per cent of the time the Privacy Commissioner's findings or administrative monetary penalty recommendations have been overturned.