The Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Jennifer Stoddart, sent the following letter to the Honourable Beverley J. Oda, P.C., M.P., Minister of Canadian Heritage, and to the Honourable Maxime Bernier, P.C., M.P., Minister of Industry, regarding reform of the Copyright Act.

May 17, 2006

The Honourable Beverley J. Oda, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Canadian Heritage
25 Eddy Street
Gatineau, Québec
K1A 0M5

The Honourable Maxime Bernier, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Industry
235 Queen Street, 5th Floor
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0H5

Dear Ministers:

First, I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere congratulations on your recent appointments.  You can count on my full support and that of my Office. 

As you know, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada is responsible for overseeing the implementation of two statutes, the Privacy Act and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).   Given that PIPEDA covers the collection, use and disclosure of personal information in the course of commercial activity and is coming up for legislative review this year, I am sure you can appreciate my great interest in any forthcoming reform of the Copyright Act, insofar as privacy issues are concerned.  

My Office has closely followed developments related to proposed amendments to the Copyright Act in Bill C-60 of the previous Parliament. It is our understanding that your departments are reviewing the bill and intend to move forward with a new bill, possibly as soon as this fall.  We would certainly welcome the opportunity to meet with relevant staff in your departments, as the bill is being conceptualized and drafted, before it is introduced in Parliament.  Once it is introduced, we will request to appear before the relevant Parliamentary Committee to make our viewpoint known. 

As you may already be aware, interested privacy advocates are issuing an open letter outlining serious privacy concerns, including issues relating to Digital Rights Management.  We too, have concerns about the pervasive threat of surveillance that these new technologies represent.  As some of my provincial colleagues have also made known, the potential impact on privacy is not insignificant.

I would be happy to discuss this and other privacy-related issues with you at your convenience. 

Sincerely,

Original signed by

Jennifer Stoddart
Privacy Commissioner of Canada