‘All Canadians would be caught in this web,’ says watchdog
‘All Canadians would be caught in this web,’ privacy commissioner says
Canada’s privacy watchdog has delivered a scathing critique of the Conservative government’s sweeping anti-terror law, calling the proposed legislation “excessive” and raising concerns that “all Canadians would be caught in this web.”
In a submission to the Commons’ public safety committee Friday, released four days before MPs are to begin hearings on Bill C-51, federal Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien raised serious concerns about informationsharing provisions in the proposed legislation.
“Clearly protecting the security of Canadians is important, and we recognize that greater information sharing may sometimes lead to the identification and suppression of security threats,” Therrien wrote.
“However, the scale of information sharing being proposed is unprecedented, the scope of the new powers conferred by the Act is excessive, particularly as these powers affect ordinary Canadians, and the safeguards protecting against unreasonable loss of privacy are seriously deficient.
“All Canadians would be caught in this web,” Therrien concluded.
The information-sharing provisions specifically remove restrictions on the passing of data between 17 federal departments and agencies. Those include the RCMP and Canada’s two spy agencies, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and Communications Security Establishment (CSE).
But it also includes the Canada Revenue Agency as well as the departments of Citizenship and Immigration, Health and Transport.
“All the tax information held by the Canada Revenue Agency, which historically has been highly protected information, would be broadly available if deemed relevant to the detection of new security threats,” Therrien wrote.
“As well, all information that departments hold about young persons that was obtained for a specific purpose could be further shared with these 17 departments and data-mined with a view to identifying those at risk of being radicalized.
“In sum, the 17 federal departments in question would be in a position to receive information about any or all Canadians’ interactions with government.”
In an interview Friday with the Citizen, Therrien said his concerns aren’t limited only to Bill C-51. Another bill, C-44, which is aimed at empowering CSIS, as well as U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden’s recent revelations about massive electronic surveillance operations, raise “fundamental questions for privacy,” he said.
“Is that the kind of society we want to live in, where ordinary Canadians, law-abiding individuals, are the subject of intrusive monitoring and profiling by national security agencies?” he asked.
In his submission, Therrien acknowledged that national security agencies have an important and difficult job protecting Canadians from terrorist threats, “and I believe they generally strive to do their work in a way that respects human rights.
“But history has shown us that serious human rights abuses can occur, not only abroad but in Canada, in the name of national security,” he added.
Therrien made a number of recommendations that he argued would go a long way to having the government’s anti-terror law strike the right balance between security and privacy.
They include raising the threshold for when information should be shared between the various departments and reviewing the definition of “activities undermining the security of Canada” to ensure it is not too broad and captures only real security threats.
The commissioner also called for a limit on how long personal information can be retained by departments, urged formal written agreements between departments, and asked that the government build in some type of independent oversight measures to ensure departments are treating personal information properly.
He also said the government should include a mandatory review of the bill after three years, which has been the standard practice for other national security legislation.
The Conservative government has been accused of stoking Canadians’ fears in an attempt to get the bill passed quickly without any amendments, as well as bolster its own support in advance of this year’s federal election.
Therrien told the Citizen he was hopeful the government would accept his recommendations. But he acknowledged the challenge of touting protecting privacy when many Canadians are feeling fearful and support some type of measures to enhance security.
“I don’t minimize the security risk at all,” he said. “But it’s not a question of it’s either security or privacy.”