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Canada's Privacy Rights Charter [2000] PLBIRp 31; (2000) 54 Privacy Laws and Business International Report 21

Canada's Privacy Rights Charter

A report by Eugene Oscapella

On June 15, 2000, Senator Sheila Finestone introduced her proposed Privacy Rights Charter (Bill S-27) in Canada's Senate. The Privacy Rights Charter would take precedence over ordinary federal legislation. It would also serve as a benchmark against which the reasonableness of privacy-infringing practices and the adequacy of legislation and regulatory measures could be measured. Although the legislation would apply only in areas under the authority of Canada's Parliament - the so-called areas of federal jurisdiction - Senator Finestone suggested that provinces could adopt equivalent protection covering matters under their jurisdiction.

In her previous life as a Member of Parliament, Senator Finestone had chaired a human rights committee that examined the privacy implications of technology. One of the major recommendations of the committee was to establish a charter of privacy rights - a quasi-constitutional document that would provide an overarching legislative framework setting out the ground rules for the protection of privacy generally. Committee members largely supported eventually establishing a full constitutional right to privacy, but considered the constitutional amendments process too cumbersome and uncertain to deal with the immediate need to establish principled protection of privacy generally. The Privacy Rights Charter became the embodiment of this proposed quasiconstitutional document.

The Privacy Rights Charter would go beyond the recently enacted Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (Bill C-6) governing private sector data protection in areas under federal jurisdiction. Bill C-6 was a data protection measure. The Charter would establish rights relating to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information, but would extend as well to physical privacy, freedom from surveillance generally and freedom from the monitoring and interception of privacy communications. As a quasiconstitutional document, the Charter would also provide guidance to the interpretation of other legislation touching on privacy issues, including Bill C-6.

Since the proposed privacy rights charter was Senator Finestone's private bill, not a government bill, its chances of being enacted are not great. However, the Minister of Justice could pick up the gauntlet and introduce the legislation in the House of Commons as a government bill, giving it almost certain chances of success.

Eugene Oscapella, Barrister, Solicitor and Privacy Consultant, can be contacted at Oscapella & Assoc Consulting, 70 MacDonald Street, Ottawa K2P 1H6, Ontario, Canada, e-mail: eoscapel@fox.nstn.ca