Bill C-65, An Act to amend the Canada Elections Act, is currently being considered by Canada's House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs. I testified about the bill's privacy provisions on October 31, 2024 (watch).
C-65 is posed as a strengthening of the privacy provisions of the Canada Elections Act that apply to Canadian political parties. However, the bill falls massively short of the standard principles used in privacy laws. The B.C. Supreme Court recently ruled that the province’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), which is a full and proper privacy regime, applies to federal political parties. The federal Liberals, Conservatives, NDP and Green Party seek to appeal the ruling, and Bill C-65 seems like an effort to undermine or displace PIPA.
My commentary about the bill, "10 privacy violations in the federal government’s proposed changes to the Canada Elections Act," is available here.
