Former Privacy Commissioner Bruce Phillips appointed to the Order of Canada

January 12, 2010

On behalf of my entire Office, I want to extend my heartfelt congratulations to Bruce Phillips, O.C., a former Privacy Commissioner of Canada, on his appointment to the Order of Canada. The appointment, announced recently by the Governor General, the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, recognizes Mr. Phillips’s distinguished contributions to journalism and the public service.

As Privacy Commissioner from 1991 and 2000, Mr. Phillips witnessed the start of the information technology explosion, and spoke eloquently about many of the privacy challenges we continue to face today, from information management and genetic technologies to the Internet and national security.

Always an advocate for privacy rights, Mr. Phillips foresaw the need to expand privacy protections beyond the federal public sector. An important outcome of his tenure as Privacy Commissioner was the passage of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, a modern and robust law that governs the protection of personal information in the private sector.

Canadians have benefited greatly from Mr. Phillips’s illustrious career, and I am pleased that his contributions have been honoured in such a deserving fashion.

Jennifer Stoddart