BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association
Your Data Your Rights
Federal Election 2019 Results: What does a Liberal minority government mean for ATI and privacy?
Previously, we compared access to information and privacy commitments in the platforms of four of Canada’s major federal political parties. Now, we’ll take a look at what we can expect from a Liberal minority government.
With the election results in, we now have greater clarity about how Canada will proceed with access to information and privacy in the years to come.
According to our ranking system, the Liberal Party made a total of six commitments out of a possible eleven, none of which were related to access to information. The only party to make more commitments was the Green Party.
Should the Liberal Party keep its commitments, we can expect the changes outlined below to privacy and data protection in Canada. These changes are part of something that the Liberal Party is calling Canada’s Digital Charter and were proposed before the election, in early 2019.
In an attempt to ensure equality, not all of the items
contained within Canada’s Digital Charter
were included within our ranking system. As noted below, some of these
abilities theoretically already exist within Canada’s legislative framework.
The changes are the following:
- Increased powers for the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
- The Right to Data Portability
- The Right to Erasure
- The Right to Know (theoretically already exists)
- The Right to Challenge
- The Right to Security
- The Right to be Free from Discrimination
In the coming months, we’ll publish articles that explain what each of these promises mean for Canadians and their privacy.
It should also be noted that Canada’s Digital Charter is based on consultations that took place
between June and October of 2018. After FIPA was not invited to participate in any
of the sixteen consultations, we filed an access to information request to
learn who was in attendance.
We learned that civil society organizations were significantly underrepresented in all the roundtable discussions, while input from the technology industry was overrepresented. On average, less than ten per cent of attendants were from civil society. In one case, representation from civil society was entirely absent.
Check back in on the news section of our website as we release the articles exploring the new rights that were promised by the Liberal Party during their 2019 campaign. This page will also be updated to include links to the articles as they become available.
Previously, we compared access to information and privacy commitments in the platforms of four of Canada’s major federal political parties. Now, we’ll take a look at what we can expect from a Liberal minority government.
With the election results in, we now have greater clarity about how Canada will proceed with access to information and privacy in the years to come.
According to our ranking system, the Liberal Party made a total of six commitments out of a possible eleven, none of which were related to access to information. The only party to make more commitments was the Green Party.
Should the Liberal Party keep its commitments, we can expect the changes outlined below to privacy and data protection in Canada. These changes are part of something that the Liberal Party is calling Canada’s Digital Charter and were proposed before the election, in early 2019.
In an attempt to ensure equality, not all of the items contained within Canada’s Digital Charter were included within our ranking system. As noted below, some of these abilities theoretically already exist within Canada’s legislative framework.
The changes are the following:
- Increased powers for the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
- The Right to Data Portability
- The Right to Erasure
- The Right to Know (theoretically already exists)
- The Right to Challenge
- The Right to Security
- The Right to be Free from Discrimination
In the coming months, we’ll publish articles that explain what each of these promises mean for Canadians and their privacy.
It should also be noted that Canada’s Digital Charter is based on consultations that took place between June and October of 2018. After FIPA was not invited to participate in any of the sixteen consultations, we filed an access to information request to learn who was in attendance.
We learned that civil society organizations were significantly underrepresented in all the roundtable discussions, while input from the technology industry was overrepresented. On average, less than ten per cent of attendants were from civil society. In one case, representation from civil society was entirely absent.
Check back in on the news section of our website as we release the articles exploring the new rights that were promised by the Liberal Party during their 2019 campaign. This page will also be updated to include links to the articles as they become available.