Did you miss me? A big thanks to my colleague Dustin Moores for stepping in and doing this intro for the past couple of weeks. We had a great vacation in the Mediterranean, but now it's back to reality!
Do you know who wasn't on vacation? The parliamentary committee reviewing Bill C-27, the Digital Charter Implementation Act — the federal law to modernize our private-sector privacy law. Last week, they heard from Privacy Commissioner Philippe Dufresne for a second time (because they got side-tracked the first time) and this week there was quite a long list of experts who provided testimony.
It was interesting to see former privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien appear to provide thoughtful commentary on how he would like to see the bill improved. Éloïse Gratton helped MPs understand a range of issues presented by the bill. Dr. Khaled El Eman and Adam Kardash focused their testimony on the issue of deidentification and anonymization. You can check the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology site for a list of all the witnesses that have appeared so far, as well as recordings of each session.
I have to admit I haven't yet had a chance to watch everything, but I was pleasantly surprised by the detailed nature of the conversation that the MPs were having with the witnesses. Some of them had clearly done their homework, which made me happy because I think this bill requires some serious consideration by our lawmakers.
More quietly, the committee has also received quite a few written briefs from both organizations and individuals. There are now 24 in total. I have not read them all, but one of them did catch my attention. It was thoughtfully written by University of Victoria professor Colin Bennett, another witness. He made a small number of recommendations but his last one is the one I hope the MPs pay the closest attention to. Of course, if you know Bennett, you will know he is a big advocate for regulating political parties and their processing of personal information. In his brief, he once again makes a strong argument for amending the bill so that the playing field in Canada is the same for businesses, organizations and political parties.
Here is the website that documents all the committee's work. Check it out.