Former Supreme Court justice Gerard Vincent LaForest was appointed today to study the prospect of combining the Information Commissioner and the Privacy Commissioner into a single office.  Although that approach is used in many provinces, given the frustration experienced by the Information Commissioner in obtaining compliance (and an extension in his term) and the Privacy Commmissioner’s inadequate resources and powers, it is difficult to see how combining the two mandates would do anything other than exacerbate the current problems.  Former Justice LaForest is due to deliver his recommendations by November 2005.