Speech (committee meeting)

{
    "time": "2009-05-11 17:10:00",
    "attribution": {
        "en": "Ms. Jennifer Stoddart",
        "fr": ""
    },
    "content": {
        "en": "<p data-HoCid=\"1480393\" data-originallang=\"en\"> Yes. The seeming contradiction between recommendations two and six is another attempt to balance the use of public funds in investigations, which are very labour-intensive operations, and justice for the Canadians who come to us with their privacy complaints. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"1480394\" data-originallang=\"en\">Actually the commissioner and complainants can go to Federal Court, but only in the very limited circumstances of being refused access to one's file. If there are corrections to be made in one's file and the government department does not want to carry them out, then there's no further recourse. There's also the whole issue of damages. I believe some of the members of this committee have talked about that just now. If the actions of a government agency in the use of your personal information cause you damage, there is no recourse. That is one of the reasons I think it would be a timely amendment to give you that right to go to Federal Court. In the private sector, if an organization misuses your personal information\u2014for example, a bank\u2014and causes you some damage, you can go to Federal Court and have a remedy. Now Canadians who have their personal information misused by the government have no effective remedy. They can just have access to their file and that's all. That's recommendation two.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"1480395\" data-originallang=\"en\">Recommendation six tries to make the act more contemporary, more focused, and to give my office the power to concentrate on the complaints for which there has not already been a determination, for which we can really do something and help the individuals. For instance, we have many complaints about the same things. For example, why does Canada Revenue Agency take all this personal information; this must be against the Privacy Act. If our powers were changed, then we'd like to say that we're not going to deal with this complaint because we deal with it several dozen times a year over the years, and here are all the examples. We'll tell people that we're not really going to investigate this; we're going to discontinue it because they basically have to give their personal information to the tax authority. That's a frequent source of complaint. We can then concentrate on other issues. For example, on recent issues with Canada Revenue Agency, perhaps there had been some misuse of the personal information within the department and some employees had overstepped their bounds of duty in looking at tax files when they shouldn't, and things like that. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"1480396\" data-originallang=\"en\">The two may seem to be contradictory, but they work into this kind of more targeted approach to the problems we see coming to us at this particular time.</p>",
        "fr": "<p data-HoCid=\"1480393\" data-originallang=\"en\">Oui. La contradiction apparente entre les recommandations deux et six permet encore une fois d'essayer de trouver le juste milieu entre l'affectation de fonds publics aux enqu\u00eates qui n\u00e9cessitent beaucoup de main-d'oeuvre et la justice \u00e0 laquelle les Canadiens ont droit lorsqu'ils pr\u00e9sentent une plainte concernant la protection de la vie priv\u00e9e. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"1480394\" data-originallang=\"en\">En fait, la commissaire et le plaignant peuvent se pr\u00e9senter devant la Cour f\u00e9d\u00e9rale dans des cas tr\u00e8s restreints lorsque l'acc\u00e8s aux renseignements a \u00e9t\u00e9 refus\u00e9. Si des corrections doivent \u00eatre apport\u00e9es au dossier d'une personne, aucun recours n'existe lorsque le minist\u00e8re en cause ne veut pas les effectuer. Il y a \u00e9galement toute la question des dommages-int\u00e9r\u00eats, ce que viennent d'aborder, je crois, certains membres du comit\u00e9. Si l'organisme gouvernemental a utilis\u00e9 vos renseignements personnels d'une fa\u00e7on qui vous porte pr\u00e9judice, il n'existe aucun recours. C'est l'une des raisons pour lesquelles, \u00e0 mon avis, accorder le droit de recourir \u00e0 la Cour f\u00e9d\u00e9rale constituerait une modification opportune. Dans le secteur priv\u00e9, ce recours est possible, si un organisme \u2014 une banque, notamment \u2014 utilise \u00e0 mauvais escient vos renseignements personnels et vous porte ainsi pr\u00e9judice. Actuellement, les Canadiens n'ont aucun recours efficace si le gouvernement utilise \u00e0 mauvais escient les renseignements personnels les concernant. Ils ne peuvent que consulter leur dossier. Voil\u00e0 pour la recommandation deux.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"1480395\" data-originallang=\"en\">La recommandation six vise \u00e0 moderniser la loi, \u00e0 la rendre plus efficace et \u00e0 accorder \u00e0 mon bureau le pouvoir de se concentrer sur les plaintes qui n'ont pas encore fait l'objet d'une d\u00e9cision et pour lesquelles nous pouvons vraiment aider la personne en cause. Des plaintes peuvent notamment porter sur un m\u00eame sujet. Par exemple, pourquoi l'Agence du revenu du Canada a-t-elle besoin d'autant de renseignements personnels? C'est peut-\u00eatre contraire \u00e0 la Loi sur la protection des renseignements personnels. Si nos pouvoirs \u00e9taient modifi\u00e9s, nous pourrions alors d\u00e9terminer que nous ne traiterons pas cette plainte parce que nous l'avons d\u00e9j\u00e0 fait chaque ann\u00e9e \u00e0 de nombreuses reprises et donner tous les exemples pertinents. Nous dirions simplement qu'il n'y aura pas d'enqu\u00eate parce qu'il faut essentiellement donner ces renseignements personnels \u00e0 l'agence. C'est une plainte fr\u00e9quente. Nous pourrions alors nous concentrer sur d'autres dossiers, notamment sur les plaintes r\u00e9centes selon lesquelles l'Agence du revenu du Canada utiliserait \u00e0 mauvais escient les renseignements personnels et certains de ses employ\u00e9s outrepasseraient leurs attributions, notamment en examinant les d\u00e9clarations de revenu sans autorisation. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"1480396\" data-originallang=\"en\">Les deux recommandations peuvent sembler contradictoires, mais elles s'int\u00e8grent pour constituer une solution mieux adapt\u00e9e aux probl\u00e8mes avec lesquels nous pr\u00e9voyons \u00eatre aux prises.</p>"
    },
    "url": "/committees/ethics/40-2/20/jennifer-stoddart-55/",
    "politician_url": null,
    "politician_membership_url": null,
    "procedural": false,
    "source_id": "2756772",
    "document_url": "/committees/ethics/40-2/20/",
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}