In my role with IAPP Canada, I spend some time thinking about and discussing how we can grow the association in Canada and how we can better serve Canadian privacy professionals.

Anyone who has been to an IAPP event outside Canada knows we have a strong and visible contingent of Canadians. Just take a look around, if you’re going to the Privacy Academy and CSA Congress in San Jose, CA, or the Global Privacy Summit in DC. They’re always full of Canadians!

Unlike our international counterparts, however, what we see less of, unfortunately, are public-sector faces—particularly the federal public sector.

There are a few of you, I know, and we’re thrilled about that.

But it makes me wonder, with all the issues in the federal public sector—the PIAs that need to be done, the breaches that occur, the surveillance issues more prominent of late—why we don’t see more of you? And what can we do about that?

For those of you from the public sector in Canada who are more involved:

• What do you see as the benefits; what are you getting out of being part of the IAPP network?
• What do you think your colleagues could benefit from in engaging with other privacy colleagues across sectors, across borders?
• What more could we be doing to engage with and offer support to you and your colleagues?
• How would you recommend we go about engaging with you and your colleagues in the public sector?

I’d love to hear from you on this.