Archive for 2006

PIPEDA Hearings – Day 08 (CMA, CDA, CPA)

The last hearing before Parliament's holiday recess took place on Wednesday with the Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Dental Association, and the Canadian Pharmacists Association providing their views on the legislation. Natalie Senst provides the full details:

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December 14, 2006 Comments are Disabled News

Project Cleanfeed Canada Documentation

Cybertip has now posted an FAQ and details on an appellate process.

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December 14, 2006 Comments are Disabled News

PIPEDA Hearings – Day 07 (ITAC, CBA, Ian Kerr)

The PIPEDA hearings continued on Monday with a robust debate on order making power, naming names, and the effect of contractual provisions on privacy protection.  The Information Technology Association of Canada uniformally argued that PIPEDA works fine, changes are unnecessary and costly, and dismissed proposed provisions such as naming names or order making power.   My colleague Ian Kerr focused on contractual issues, while the Canadian Bar Association supported order making power with the development of a new tribunal.

While I was not in attendance, the notes from the hearing suggest that this hearing would be better named "ITAC Attacks".  In its zeal to dissuade the committee from recommending any changes, ITAC made several unsubstantiated claims including claims that most organizations approach the commissioner where security breaches occur, that there is a good level of privacy compliance in Canada, and that the U.S. is not less prone to privacy invasions than Canada (all offered without reference to any supporting study).  It would be worth noting which companies comprise ITAC's membership and inquire directly whether they support the strongest assault yet on reforms that might improve Canada's privacy law framework.

The full notes of the day's event, from Kathleen Simmons, are posted below:

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December 13, 2006 Comments are Disabled News

Code 2.0

Larry Lessig's Code 2.0 – an update of his remarkable book – is available for purchase or download.

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December 11, 2006 Comments are Disabled News

Digital Info Strategy Requires Courage Before Cash

My weekly Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) examines efforts in Canada to develop a national digital information strategy in light of a national summit on the issue held last week in Montebello, Quebec.  The column notes that the good news is that many provincial governments and organizations are not waiting for Ottawa to act, citing initiatives by the Alberta and Quebec governments, Alouette Canada, Synergies, the McCord Museum, and the blossoming of user generated content.

This enormous energy suggests that digitization will flourish regardless of whether Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Industry Minister Maxime Bernier, and Canadian Heritage Minister Bev Oda adopt a formal strategy.  However, despite the good news, the summit also left little doubt that there are immediate steps that can be taken to pave the way for even more.

In fact, I argue that the federal government would do well to resist introducing expensive new initiatives by first maximizing the benefits that can be extracted from the current set of policies and programs.

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December 11, 2006 1 comment Columns