How the Liberal and Conservative Parties Have Quietly Colluded to Undermine the Privacy Rights of Canadians

It hasn’t received much attention, but the government and official opposition – ie. the Liberals and Conservatives – have been quietly working to pass legislation that undermine the privacy rights of Canadians, effectively exempting themselves from the privacy rules imposed on everyone else. As I highlighted in June, Bill C-4 was promoted as “affordability measures” bill but it also includes provisions that exempt political parties from the application of privacy protections. The provisions, which come toward the end of the bill, are deemed to be in force as May 31, 2000, meaning that they retroactively exempt the parties from any privacy violations that may date back decades. The House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance wrapped up its study of the bill last week and incredibly it refused to hear from any witnesses that would speak to the issue. In fact, despite concerns raised in briefs from the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and the Commissioner of Elections, the committee (consisting almost entirely of Liberal and Conservative MPs) limited its discussion of an entire section of the bill to a thirty second description of the provisions from a government official. No witnesses, no debate, no acknowledgement of concerns raised by experts. It was as if the provisions do not exist.

This is not the first time the government has tried to exempt political parties from standard privacy laws. Bill C-65, which failed in the last Parliament, contained similar provisions. However, the provisions were in a bill on the Elections Act, not buried among tax measures. Moreover, the previous approach were stronger, including measures to address data breaches and the requirement to notify affected individuals as well as certain restrictions such as the sale of personal information. Bill C-4 removes the data breach notification requirements, drops the sale restrictions, and renders the entire exemption retroactive to the year 2000. Having granted themselves full rights to collect, use and disclose personal information – and knowing that PIPEDA does not generally apply to these activities – Bill C-4 then also exempts the parties from any provincial privacy laws.

The government has even tried…

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