I appeared on Gorilla Radio on CFUV, Victoria’s Campus Community Radio Station, to my post, Who is Watching the Watchers. Listen to the interview or download it here.
Wiertz Sebastien - Privacy by Sebastien Wiertz (CC BY 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/ahk6nh
Privacy
Who Is Watching the Watchers?: Ten Questions About Canada’s Secret Metadata Surveillance Activities
The surveillance story may have started last week in the U.S. with the leak of several secret surveillance programs including massive surveillance of the metadata from all cellphone calls, but the Canadian questions continue to mount. The U.S. disclosures immediately raised questions about the possibility of Canadian involvement or the inclusion of Canadian data. Given the common communication infrastructure and the similarity between Canadian and U.S. laws, it seemed likely that Canada was engaged in much the same activities.
By Monday, the Globe was reporting that the CSEC has its own metadata surveillance program with approval granted through a ministerial directive from Defence Minister Peter MacKay in 2011. When questioned about the issue, MacKay sought to assure Canadians that the surveillance only involved foreign communications. Despite those assurances, the questions have continued to mount:
CBC’S Radio Noon Montreal: Government Surveillance Program Raises Alarms
I appeared on CBC’s Radio Noon Montreal to discuss the federal government’s electronic surveillance program. Also on the program were Colin Freeze and A.J. West. For audio of the interview click here.
The Canadian Government’s Embarrassing Opposition to Security Breach Disclosure Legislation
Last week, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada released her vision of privacy reform, including the need for security breach disclosure legislation, order-making power, and greater transparency of warrantless disclosure. On the same day as Commissioner Stoddart released her position paper, the government was embarrassing itself in the House of Commons by formally opposing security breach disclosure legislation on the weakest of grounds. The opposition to meaningful privacy reform is particularly discouraging given the thousands of breaches that have occurred in recent years from within the government itself and its claims to be concerned with the privacy of Canadians.
The government introduced legislation featuring security breach disclosure requirements in Bill C-12 in September 2011 (itself a reintroduction of the former C-29 that was first introduced in 2010). Since first reading, the bill has not moved. It would take very little for the government to complete second reading and send the bill for study to committee, yet more than a year and a half later, the bill languishes, certain to die this summer when the government hits the parliamentary reset button. Frustrated by the inexplicable delays, NDP MP Charmaine Borg introduced a private member’s bill in February (C-475) that includes a mandatory security breach requirement roughly similar to the government’s own bill.
Privacy Commissioner of Canada Sets Out Targets for PIPEDA Reform
Privacy Commissioner of Canada Jennifer Stoddart this morning set out her office’s goals for PIPEDA reform. The last attempt to reform the private sector privacy law stalled in the House of Commons with Bill C-12 still technically alive (having been sitting at second reading for months) but destined to die […]
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