Today Canada, along with many countries around the world, is celebrating Data Protection Day. As our societies are becoming increasingly digitized, the Internet is playing a much larger role in the economy, education and civic engagement.
Digital technologies allow families and friends to connect more easily; business people to market their products more quickly; students to learn more; and activists to network and exercise our democracy more effectively.
However, Canadians face serious threats, as we saw recently when the government lost a significant amount of personal data.
On Data Protection Day, it is important to reflect on one crucial lesson: government must be proactive in developing strong,transparent laws and policies to protect the personal information of Canadians in the public and private sectors. Cleaning up spills after the fact is too little too late.
That is why the NDP continues to call for measures to protect Canadians' personal data. It is time to be proactive on this issue so that Canadians can enjoy a personal data protection system that is trustworthy and recognized around the world.