I want to take this opportunity—a week after our IAPP Canada Privacy Symposium—to remark on how lucky we are in Canada to have our regulators participate alongside the rest of us in trying to learn about (and teach) the intricacies of the issues we face.

Commissioners Therrien, Denham, Clayton and Tully all rolled up their sleeves, spoke in sessions and even shared snippets of wisdom with us during the cocktail reception at the Hockey Hall of Fame. Equally cool was how former Commissioners Loukidelis and Work also participated. And last year, the former commissioner from Saskatchewan, Gary Dixon, attended, as did the commissioners from the Yukon and Ontario. 

Hopefully, next year, the trend will continue and we will see even more participation from those that have the envious and challenging task of regulating privacy in Canada. By then, there will likely be a new assistant commissioner at the federal level—you may have noticed that they are actively seeking out interested people starting this week. Update those CVs!

If we do have several commissioners attend next year, I expect to revive the infamous Game Show. So … Game on!

Enough about last week. Don’t forget to catch up on this week’s news. There’s a story about how Bill S-4 is speeding through the parliamentary process and another about how people have gotten themselves into criminal trouble for not doing privacy properly at the hospital they worked in. And the federal government has announced new plans to collect biometrics of more travellers to Canada. Of course, there’s a lot more to peruse, but those were stories that caught my attention.