Health committee  I guess the laws we have right now do provide for communication and sharing of personal information in many circumstances. I guess from the sorts of problems I've heard about here today, there is a wide spectrum of situations that happen, from the patients who may lose their drug

Health committee  Good afternoon. Your question is very good. It deals with what was said previously, in that obviously if someone is prescribed drugs for medical purposes that prescription is personal information about them, and it's information that is regulated under privacy laws in place at

Information & Ethics committee  The directives seek to give guidance to government institutions in the application of the Privacy Act. One of them is on the issue of the need to notify the Privacy Commissioner if ever there is personal information that is released by accident by departments, so that the Privacy

Information & Ethics committee  Yes. I think it's part of the document in 2006 that was given to this committee. We can certainly provide it again. There is an annex 1 of the 2006 discussion paper and there is a consideration of the costs included for the changes that were then being considered in the Reid bill

Information & Ethics committee  I can only repeat that the name of a requester is personal information that's protected under the Privacy Act. It's not information that should be shared--

Information & Ethics committee  --outside--

Information & Ethics committee  --preparing documentation for ministers when access requests are being processed. That doesn't mean slowing down the request, and certainly we don't approve of any slowing down of access requests.

Information & Ethics committee  Perhaps I can add that adequate resources to the ATIP office is something that's very important, and that the department took that role seriously. New staff was hired in the ATIP office to deal with the requests. But it's not simply there that the responsibility for success lies.

Information & Ethics committee  We don't agree with the slowing down of any access request. I think the Information Commissioner conducted quite a lengthy investigation a few years ago. Actually it was completed last summer, I think, because of a complaint of the Canadian Newspaper Association. The commissioner

Information & Ethics committee  You're asking us to make policy, and obviously that's not our role as officials. It's very difficult to know exactly how many requests there are by data brokers, to agree on a definition of what a data broker is and on statistics concerning them. I've never seen reliable data.

Information & Ethics committee  I can't speak about this particular incident or allegation that you're making, but a few years ago this committee held hearings on this subject. It made recommendations, and the government responded to those recommendations, and I think that's very well known.

Information & Ethics committee  It's not something I've called a human right.

Information & Ethics committee  I think the recommendation you're speaking about was made by the former commissioner, Mr. Reid, and not by Mr. Marleau. On the subject of solicitor-client privilege, the laws in the provinces vary. Actually, there's a case now before the Supreme Court in which the issue of the re

Information & Ethics committee  The minister referred--

Information & Ethics committee  The court, I think, was simply reading the provisions of the act, saying she has recommendation powers only. That's not disputed; it's a fact. In looking at that, it concluded that it was necessary to give the third party the right to claim the personal information exemption in t