Information & Ethics committee  Thank you. For me, the role of Privacy Commissioner is a combination, in a way, of my experience as a human rights lawyer for the commission and as a counsellor for the House. I think there is an important role in understanding parliamentarians and understanding legislators and understanding laws.

Information & Ethics committee  I do. I think it's incumbent on public officials. Certainly, I would see that for agents of Parliament. I saw the commission as being important to express views to correct the record if misstatements are being made. It's absolutely essential, of course, to be always fair with the facts.

Information & Ethics committee  That's up to Parliament, but I will act accordingly.

Information & Ethics committee  Some of the concerns that were raised, and there have been lots of comments made by the OPC, including recently to this committee, not necessarily looking back to Bill C-11 but anticipating, in terms of the new iteration, what some of those elements should be. The first one being a rights-based framework, so making sure this is a regime that is not exclusively based on consent and that it recognizes privacy as a fundamental right.

Information & Ethics committee  I would say it's for the same reason that I don't see human rights as being stifling of innovation or the public interest. These are things that can coexist. It requires collaboration. It may require better understanding and better communication, but I see it as coexisting in the sense that privacy rights that are strong, that are well known and that are practical are going to generate trust in Canadians to be participating in the digital economy.

Information & Ethics committee  I did, and I think I was talking about incentives. I think incentives are important. In terms of the existence of these powers and these penalties, you hope not to use them, but I feel that the fact that they exist gives a greater impact in terms of the views and the positions that are expressed by the OPC.

Information & Ethics committee  I see the role in providing advice in appearing before this committee, in publishing opinions and recommendations, and in engaging with officials, with parliamentarians and with academia. I think one of the discussions that I've seen in the OPC is on greater outreach, perhaps broader outreach, with academia, with practitioners, with citizens, with industry and with the private and the public sectors.

Information & Ethics committee  My main priorities are going to ensure that Canadians can have better understanding and better protection. The private sector law has expectations that may come first. Certainly it did with Bill C-11. It would be a priority to ensure that Canadians can participate in the digital economy.

Information & Ethics committee  A lot of the comments that have been made by the Commissioner to this committee in terms of looking at de-identified information, looking at a rights-based model, looking at increased powers for the Privacy Commissioner in terms of order-making powers, looking at penalties and the regime therefore, those are important things, as are looking at consent and calibrating to make sure consent is meaningful, looking at proportionality and necessity, and ensuring that certain purposes and certain uses are defined as either not being allowed or being allowed, without consent, but in appropriate cases.

Information & Ethics committee  In your discussions with Commissioner Therrien, he noted that he had offered his services, but that the government had chosen to use its own experts. I believe that Commissioner Therrien recognized that the government had the right to do that and that his office was not necessarily the only one with expertise.

Information & Ethics committee  I hesitate to comment or to speculate on that, because I was not involved in this file in any way. That said, I think that, with regard to the consequences that were discussed before this committee, we heard several people tell you that it was preferable for the commissioner to play that role.

Information & Ethics committee  A recommendation has been made in this regard under the federal Privacy Act, which has a more explicit mandate on this subject and which already exists under the Personal Information Protection and Electronics Documents Act, for the private sector. There are a number of tools, but again, you have to be creative.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you, Mr. Green, and thank you for your role in the emergencies committee as well. It was a privilege to appear before you in this capacity. I think that human rights and privacy rights are fundamental. Privacy rights have been recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the same time as we had a major recognition of human rights.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you for your question. It is a fundamental one. In one of my previous answers, I said that the right to privacy and privacy issues affect everyone. It affects younger people, older people, people who are fascinated by technology, and even those who are not. There is a lot of potential and innovation involved in this context.

Information & Ethics committee  As was mentioned before this committee, it is important that the regime does not focus exclusively on the notion of consent, that it does not completely leave it up to citizens to inform themselves about these provisions, which are often very complex, to understand them and to say "yes" or "no.”