Information & Ethics committee  If it's a federally regulated institution, the matter falls under PIPEDA, as opposed to the Quebec law.

Information & Ethics committee  If I can also add, it may be the case that for most cases in Quebec, consumers have the recourse and remedies they need provincially. It's not the case in all other provinces. We still need to reform the federal law for the rest of Canada, even if Quebec consumers are adequately

Information & Ethics committee  This is one of the recommendations that many people are making for a Criminal Code amendment. It is in fact an offence under the Criminal Code right now to collect and possess credit card information without lawful excuse. I believe it may be so in some other specific situations.

Information & Ethics committee  Both, federal and provincial. In terms of the class actions, we are recommending specific amendments to PIPEDA. If you look at our recommendations numbers 1 to 7 in our submission of November 28 on PIPEDA reform, we're saying the provinces, particularly Quebec, have a very effec

Information & Ethics committee  Excuse me. We have a law saying the companies are responsible right now. The problem is it's not good enough.

Information & Ethics committee  If you're looking seriously at this, I would recommend that you perhaps think about calling some witnesses or hearing from some people from California, which put in place its data breach notification law at least three years ago. They've had experience with it. I've heard some pe

Information & Ethics committee  I think the problem is that banks and other industry are quite loath to issue such warnings because they don't want to deter people from engaging in on-line commerce.

Information & Ethics committee  Two problems. One is that the fraudster isn't going to issue those warnings. I'm trying to think how it would technically work. What's happening is that the individual is not in fact dealing with legitimate organizations. They think they are, but they're dealing with the fraudste

Information & Ethics committee  That's exactly why we're recommending that we make it easier for consumers to, for example, engage in class actions against companies that have been so negligent that large numbers of consumers have suffered. We do need to take some legislative actions here to ensure that neglige

Information & Ethics committee  I can just say that our research shows that the penalties are simply not high enough, and it's just a cost of doing business for the criminals.

Information & Ethics committee  We have published a working paper on case law, which I believe covers criminal law cases as well as civil law cases in this area. I don't have it with me right now with the details. We will be publishing a further one on the issue of enforcement of criminal laws affecting ID thef

Information & Ethics committee  Unlike our Competition Bureau, the FTC has broader jurisdiction to deal with consumer protection issues. In my view, this is one of the greatest gaps in the federal regime, the fact that the Competition Bureau does not see itself as having a mandate of protecting consumers.

Information & Ethics committee  Absolutely. I'd say it complements market forces, in that sense.

Information & Ethics committee  I'm going to let Mr. Lawford jump in because I think he's done more work with the FCAC. It's a national agency responsible, as I understand it, for bank regulations involving consumer protection issues. The nice thing about FCAC is that it's national. It doesn't cover all finan

Information & Ethics committee  We oppose it, at least insofar as it's provided to political parties. There may be good reason for Elections Canada to collect that information for its own internal purpose and to keep it carefully safeguarded and to ensure that it is used for no other purpose. But there is abso