Politics This Morning: Diving into the feds’ new privacy bill

Good Thursday morning, It’s shaping up to be another fine day in Ottawa. There’s not much action around the Hill today, but that doesn’t mean public servants, and the people who lobby them, aren’t keeping busy. The government’s enormous new privacy bill is certainly fodder for both this summer. Industry Minister FRANÇOIS-PHILIPPE CHAMPAGNE tabled Bill C-27—it’’s short name is the Digital Charter Implementation Act—in the House of Commons on June 16. MPs have not yet begun debating the bill. In a press conference that day, Champagne sold the bill as a way of ensuring that Canadians’ data is safe, their privacy respected, and that new data technologies are being deployed responsibly by the private sector. The bill is the government’s second crack at updating Canada’s existing privacy law regime, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. The first was spearheaded by former Industry Minister NAVDEEP BAINS; his bill was tabled into Parliament but died on the Order Paper when Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU called a snap election. Champagne’s new bill includes the same two sections as Bain’s bill, which propose a new act governing consumer privacy, and another act establishing a tribunal to hear appeals of decisions by the federal privacy commissioner and to impose penalties for violations of the consumer privacy act. Champagne’s bill also includes a third section that creates an act to set boundaries on the use of artificial intelligence by big business. If you want a more thorough run-down of what’s in C-27, check out this story by Global News’ AARON D’ANDREA. If you’ve already seen the early coverage and are left wanting more, PTM is here for you, with a breakdown of some of the key ways in which C-27 differs from Bains’ bill, C-11, with help from WENDY WAGNER, a partner at Gowling WLG’s Ottawa office and veteran privacy lawyer. ‘Anonymized’ data exempt Like its predecessor, C-27 includes a suite of conditions for the handling of data that has been “de-identified”, meaning that it has been altered to hide parts of the data that would allow a viewer to pair it with a real person. However, the new bill separates out data that has been “anonymized”—meaning that it has been de-identified in a way that could never be reversed. Anonymized data is now fully exempt from the new privacy law. “There’s a lot you can do with anonymized information as a business that is still powerful and important,” said Wagner, and this act will allow those sorts of activities to take place unconstrained. Legitimate interest exception The new law says that a business can collect and use your personal information without your knowledge or consent if it does so “for the purpose of an activity in which the organization has a legitimate interest that outweighs any potential adverse effect on the individual resulting from that collection or use.” That sounds…sketchy, doesn’t it? Who decides what a “legitimate interest” is, or how it weighs against those “adverse effects”? “It’s interesting that there’s no real definition of what is a legitimate interest,” said Wagner. “It’s hard to know what they’re contemplating exactly.” Former industry minister Navdeep Bains, who left politics in 2021, made the government's first privacy reform bill, C-11, one of his top files, but it didn't pass through the House before the snap election was called last year. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade Her best guess is that Champagne and co. are modelling this after the relatively strict European General Data Protection Regulation, which does define "legitimate interest" fairly broadly. Businesses can, for example, use this sort of information to provide services to the customers it matches with, preventing fraud or maintaining security in their systems. Champagne’s bill includes one major difference, however: while the Europeans consider marketing as a “legitimate interest”, C-27 includes a sub-clause that rules out the collection or use of information in this way “for the purpose of influencing the individual’s behaviour or decisions.” Disposal exceptions Champagne has plugged the right to have one’s data deleted by a company holding onto it as one of his bill’s selling points. Bains’ bill had this feature as well, but C-27 includes new language giving businesses new grounds to refuse such a request. Those include: if the information is necessary for the business to mount a legal defence; if it determines the request was made “in bad faith”; if the business is already planning to scrap the data at some future date anyway; and if disposing of the data would undermine the organization’s ability to provide services to the requester. Those last two exemptions don’t apply if the data belongs to a minor. New powers for the tribunal Like Bains’ bill, C-27 proposes creating a legal tribunal to adjudicate disputes over use of the law. The new bill includes more powers for the tribunal, however; specifically, the same rights as a Superior or Federal Court when it comes to documents, testimony, and enforcing decisions. Protection for minors Champagne highlighted his bill’s importance for protecting the data of children, and Wagner also went out of her way to highlight the significance of provisions in the bill to this effect, calling it a “brand new” concept in Canadian privacy law. The closest thing, she said, was guidance from the federal privacy commissioner that said children’s data should be considered to be more sensitive than data from adults. The use of the term “minors” in C-27 extends that concept, presumably, right up to the age of majority, with more restrictive requirements for how that data is handled. Missing from the bill, however, are any details about how far businesses must go to determine whether the data they are gathering belongs to a child—no small concern for businesses that don’t want to end up on the wrong side of a tribunal decision. Those compliance rules could be shaped through regulations that will come down after/if C-27 passes into law, or it could be shaped over time through a body of decisions made by the tribunal, said Wagner. AI rules This is a whole new section that didn’t exist in C-11. There is an impression, in reading the text of this section of C-27, that the government is easing its way into uncharted waters. The bill essentially requires that data used by AI systems be anonymized, and that someone working for the AI company be put in charge of assessing whether the use of the AI system could cause harm, and to monitor efforts within the company to mitigate those harms. The company must also publish a “plain-language” description of how the system works, generally, and how it prevents harms from occurring. It gives the minister powers to order the production of documents from any AI system that might be causing harm; to audit the system; and to order that it not be used any more if need be. Confidential business information about the system will be kept secret. A lot of the details have been left for public servants to flesh out through regulation, noted Wagner. That includes which companies this law applies to—only those that are “high impact,” which has yet to be defined—and what constitutes an acceptable effort to mitigate harms caused by the AI system. That alone will give government regulators plenty to chew on, and ensure they get an earful from Ottawa’s tech lobbyists down the road. What’s cabinet up to? Champagne in Japan; Newfoundland big shots gather for infrastructure announcement Speaking of Minister Champagne, he's in Japan this week, pitching manufacturing and technology executives on the wonders of working in Canada. He'll hold a virtual press conference to talk about his trip this evening at 7 p.m. Ottawa time. Back in Canada, Labour Minister and St. John’s native (and MP) SEAMUS O’REGAN is making an infrastructure announcement today in Mount Pearl, a city just south-west of the provincial capital. Labour Minister Seamus O'Regan is in Newfoundland today. He'll be making an infrastructure announcement in Mount Pearl. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade O’Regan will be joined at the Mount Pearl City Hall at 10 a.m. Ottawa time by Premier ANDREW FUREY, provincial Infrastructure Minister ELVIS LOVELESS, and the mayors of both Mount Pearl and St. Johns, DAVE AKER and DANNY BREEN. O’Regan is back on The Rock for this year’s Energy and Mines Ministers’ Conference, which wraps up at the end of the week. Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister MARIE-CLAUDE BIBEAU is also making a funding announcement in her home riding. At 3:30 p.m. she’ll be doling out funding for the local Lions Club in Compton, Que. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in Sudbury, where he'll hold a photo-op at a local mine engineering facility, meet with a student group, and plant a tree with Environment Minister STEVEN GUILBEAULT. Deputy Prime Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND is in Toronto, where she'll deliver a speech at noon to open the Toronto Caribbean Carnival (formerly known as Caribana). Public Services Minister FILOMENA TASSI and Families Minister KARINA GOULD are in Hamilton this morning. They will announce funding for repairs to the Burlington Canal Lift Bridge at a nearby parking lot at 10 a.m. The Burlington Canal Lift Bridge features a section of roadway that helps vehicles to cut across the western tip of Lake Ontario between Burlington and Hamilton. It periodically lifts that roadway up into the air during summer months to let ships pass underneath. What else is happening today? Kheiriddin launches book on CPC future Political columnist and Conservative Party activist TASHA KHEIRIDDIN is launching her new book on the state of affairs in Canadian conservative politics today at an event in Calgary’s Petroleum Club. The billing for Kheiriddin’s book,The Right Path: How Conservatives Can Unite, Inspire, and Take Canada Forward, says it tackles how the Tories can avoid a “trap” set for them by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals; how the party can take advantage of the Liberal-NDP cooperation agreement; and what policies will help it to grow its footprint in the country. The event kicks off at 11:45 a.m. local time. Campaign crash-course This evening the non-profit Equal Voice is holding a two-hour online campaign training session for women interested in running for political office. Equal Voice’s raison d'être is helping to get more women elected to office in Canada. Tonight’s “pop-up” campaign school will run from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Ottawa time, free of charge. Participants can sign up here. In case you missed it Does the Reform Act violate workplace harassment laws? IAN CAMPBELL surveyed lawyers and politicos on this question, following up on a question Conservative MP MICHELLE REMPEL-GARNER asked of the government while her fellow Tories grumbled about wanting to kick her out of caucus. You can read that story here. Send your news tips to pmazereeuw@hilltimes.com

Politics This Morning

Politics This Morning: Diving into the feds’ new privacy bill

Plus, Tasha Kheiriddin is launching her new book on the state of CPC politics.

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Politics This Morning

Politics This Morning: Diving into the feds’ new privacy bill

Plus, Tasha Kheiriddin is launching her new book on the state of CPC politics.

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