At one point I felt fairly confident we would see Bill C-27 adopted. But as time goes on, I'm not so sure.
This week, the House of Commons of Canada Standing Committee on Industry and Technology continued to hear testimony from both individuals and organizations on the bill aimed at federal privacy reform and artificial intelligence legislation.
I certainly don't want to cut off the opportunity for meaningful input and debate, but if you look at the sitting calendar there aren't actually that many days left and we still need to consider the Senate's input in all this.
Canada's privacy commissioners have been calling — now for decades — for increased powers to promote compliance. And I know a lot of chief privacy officers have also hoped that stronger penalties for noncompliance would incentivize their organizations to pay much closer attention to privacy.
It would be a real shame if we can't see this thing through. Only time will tell.
On a more positive note, in case you didn't catch wind of it, this week the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario launched another Transparency Challenge. This is where the office asks Ontario institutions to put forward their open data and transparency initiatives that impact the day-to-day lives of people in the province.
This time there's a privacy angle I really wanted to flag — the IPC also wants to see examples of unique and innovative approaches to transparency about privacy practices. So this is not just about open data and access to information. Some of the projects will be chosen for the Transparency Showcase, which is a 3D online gallery you might want to check out.
I think this is a pretty cool and super positive way for a regulator to encourage compliance with the rules — by showing real, tangible examples. All too often regulators shy away from providing models or templates, and I think they could give us a lot more examples of what they would actually like to see, as opposed to just telling us what they don't like.
So if you work for one of the eligible institutions, you should really consider making a submission. It would be great to see your privacy work in this online gallery.