Information & Ethics committee  If I might, the fact that some provincial legislation has been found to be substantially similar, such as Ontario's Personal Health Information Protection Act, has eased some of that confusion, because CMA's division, the Ontario Medical Association, worked very closely to put to

Information & Ethics committee  Allow me to respond, Ms. Lavallée. The Quebec Act respecting the Protection of Personal Information has indeed been found substantially similar to the Personal Information and Electronics Document Act. Consequently, the federal Act does not apply in Quebec, just as it does not a

Information & Ethics committee  Except for new issues such as electronic medical files. Should a change arise, Quebec’s Act respecting the Protection of Personal Information would have to be amended because it was adopted in 1994. The level of protection must also be increased.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, exactly. I believe the guideline on harmonizing laws comes from a European committee.

Information & Ethics committee  It was the catalyst for creating the federal Act. That is to say, a European committee at the OECD suggested that, in order to promote exchange and trade with each other, States should enact laws to protect private information. I believe it was the catalyst that brought about the

Information & Ethics committee  To my knowledge, the Canadian Medical Association was not in partnership with Great Britain on this issue but we are members of the World Medical Association (WMA). In this regard, the question as to how to protect the privacy of patients remains. Other representatives here toda

Information & Ethics committee  So are you asking us, do we recommend that PIPEDA's remedies be more akin to the professional types of remedies?

Information & Ethics committee  If I understand the question, are you seeking more the remedy component of it?

Information & Ethics committee  If I understand what you're saying, the remedy for these self-governing professions is on a more severe scale than what you're saying is the remedy in—

Information & Ethics committee  In the relationship of trust that is the foundation for these relationships between doctor and patient, lawyer and client, the consequences have to be severe or you wouldn't even have a relationship; it may be declined because of the quality of the data that's being shared. But i

Information & Ethics committee  When PIPEDA was first put forth as a legislative proposal, CMA and other health care groups said, “Wait a minute, what about its application to health?” I think some of the response at the administrators' level from Industry Canada was, “What do you mean? It doesn't even apply to

Information & Ethics committee  I think the initial reaction was, “Where are you coming from with that?” We were doing this for trade and commerce to promote—so it didn't seem that it was something specific to health that was worthy of comment. As a caveat, I wasn't working at the association at that time. The

Information & Ethics committee  I would say yes, because that's why we have the PARTs guidelines, and that's where there has been all this effort to make sure the professions are actually working towards compliance with PIPEDA.

Information & Ethics committee  When PIPEDA was a bill in 1999-2000, that sort of moment, it didn't really apply to health or where you're coming from. But then in the fall of 2003, when, after that delay period, it was going to apply, the health care providers said to Health Canada and Industry Canada, “We're

Information & Ethics committee  I don't know if I should leap into the fray, given that my name has already been invoked as the poster child of jumbled legalese. What I would offer is that in the kit you received is the privacy poster that CMA worked together with our divisions on. It looks very specifically