By raising the issues and by raising interest in the various aspects of privacy--and there are many--parliamentary committees in the last few years have helped to make Canadians much more aware of their privacy rights and how they can be improved, so we certainly appreciate your attention to the issues and the recommendations that come out of the various committees. For example, our own ethics committee on Privacy Act reform would have an impact on the issues we're discussing here, because one of the things I hope they recommend is to put in a necessity test for collecting information. This is a basic principle of fair information--principles around the world. If there had been a necessity test applied to the use of the collection of information by national security agencies, we might have another story today.
On May 7th, 2009. See this statement in context.