Information & Ethics committee  Well, sure. This is an issue that I think most of our peer countries, most of the developed world, have identified as absolutely crucial to future long-term innovation and economic prosperity, as well as integral to what our education system, entertainment, and culture look like.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you very much. Good morning. My name is Michael Geist. I am a law professor at the University of Ottawa, where I hold the Canada research chair in Internet and e-commerce law. I was a member of the national Task Force on Spam, and I currently serve on the Privacy Commissio

Information & Ethics committee  I'm glad as well. I emphasize that this is not a partisan issue by any means, nor is it an opportunity for one side to embarrass anybody else, whatever it happens to be. In may ways, making these materials readily available can instil greater confidence in all politicians and in

Information & Ethics committee  I think a number of questions we have had highlight something that we ought to make clear, which is that when we're talking about open data or even open government, we're not necessarily talking about sensitive stuff. I know there is a tendency to think that you're just trying to

Information & Ethics committee  I think the point is to create, in a sense, almost some inter-agency competition in which there are expectations set for every department about what will be released. In that way there's a certain amount of accountability and a requirement to move forward within the departments.

Information & Ethics committee  I'd be very happy to provide you with copies. Actually, your colleague, Mr. Lake, asked me specifically about this book when I appeared for Bill C-32. I'm happy to make copies of the book available, but I should note that it's actually available under creative commons licence b

Information & Ethics committee  You can, but I'm happy to get you copies.

Information & Ethics committee  We're not talking about a scarce resource. The only scarcity we have with respect to it is an artificial scarcity that's been established essentially by government in not making it available. The fact that others may have access to this information doesn't mean that Canadians don

Information & Ethics committee  I should clarify. What has happened is that as part of the dues lawyers pay, they pay a certain amount--it's about $30 a year--to fund this site organization called CanLII. CanLII then has agreements with underlying courts and governments and tribunals that they will make their c

Information & Ethics committee  It's available to all. The lawyers saw the opportunity to have that material available so that they could reduce some of their expenditures on other legal material from mainstream legal publishers. The nice consequence—and, I would argue, the intended one—was that not only woul

Information & Ethics committee  I think those are good—

Information & Ethics committee  Those are good areas. Environmental issues interest a lot of Canadians, but the point to take home about the experience in other jurisdictions is that nobody is smart enough to actually know in advance which data sets are going to be the most valuable. However, that's a feature,

Information & Ethics committee  I recognize what the law says now. I also recognize we're a country of 33 million people. If a single person comes forward asking for this document to be made available in English if it was originally in French, I would suggest that the notion that we're going to stop making it a

Information & Ethics committee  I don't think it represents a significant risk. I don't think it's a copyright issue, quite frankly. It's an issue of whether you trust a particular source. I think what happens over time, as you make the works available, is that you come to trust.... In some instances, you may f

Information & Ethics committee  No, in some ways it's the opposite. It's the lawyers who are paying to make works available.