Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs Bios

Background

• Appointed in 2021, background in law.
• Returning member and CHAIR of LCJC.
• Former Chief Commissioner of the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission (2009).
• Former Treaty Commissioner for the Province of Saskatchewan; provincial court judge; Crown prosecutor; and Director General of Aboriginal Justice at Justice Canada.
• Former Chair of the Canadian Judges’ Forum of the Canadian Bar Association.

Engagement on Privacy

• No direct contact with the OPC.

Other issues of relevance

• In February 2024, during the Privacy Commissioner’s appearance before the Standing Senate Committee on Indigenous Peoples regarding the federal government’s responsibilities to First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples, Senator Arnot was interested to hear about the systemic issues causing access to information difficulties to residential school survivors. While questioning the Commissioner on the matter, he declared that the Privacy Act is an “impediment” paralyzing the survivors’ access to key historical records.

Background

• Appointed in 2013, background in laws and mental health.
• Returning member and DEPUTY CHAIR of LCJC.
• Conservative Party Caucus Chair in the Senate (since May 14, 2025).
• Former member of SECD (43rd and 44th Parliaments).

Engagement on Privacy

• In November 2024, during the consideration at SECD of Bill C-26, An Act Respecting Cyber Security, her office reached out to the OPC for reviewing an amendment related to the reporting obligations under the Critical Cyber Systems Protection Act. On November 25, she moved her amendment during the clause-by-clause consideration of Bill C-26, which has been defeated by the committee.

Other issues of relevance

• On June 25, 2025, during QP, she stated that Bill C-8, An Act Respecting Cyber Security, is a verbatim version of former Bill C-26, An Act Respecting Cyber Security, which does not include the amendment on the maximum retention period that the Privacy Commissioner testified as being required.
• In June 2021, during the consideration at the LCJC Committee of Bill S-203, Protecting Young Persons from Exposure to Pornography Act, she inquired at the then Privacy Commissioner about what would be, in his views, the preferable method of age verification and to comment on the issue of digital storage of personal information. She was also interested about the evolution of the age verification technology since 2018.

Background

• Appointed in 2021, background in Civil and Common Law.
• Returning member of LCJC.
• Former member of BANC (44th Parliament).
• Former Mayor of Cornwall (2018-2021).

Engagement on Privacy

• No direct contact with the OPC.

Other issues of relevance

• In May 2023, during the consideration at committee of Division 39 of Bill C-47, Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1, she expressed an interest in hearing more about the privacy policies developed by the federal political parties and how they apply to the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information. In her views, these policies are “uneven” and will likely trigger confusion amongst Canadians regarding their application under the existing federal and provincial privacy laws.
• In April 2022, during the consideration at the LCJC Committee of Bill S-210, Protecting Young Persons from Exposure to Pornography Act, she expressed an interest in how age verification methods affect the porn sites’ bounce rate in search engines and how this could fuel their reluctance in implementing age verification systems in general.

Background

• Appointed in 2025, background in criminology and law enforcement.
• New member of LCJC.
• Former RCMP officer (1989-2019).

Engagement on Privacy

• No direct contact with the OPC.

Other issues of relevance

• None

Background

• Appointed in 2009, background in federal and provincial politics.
• Returning member of LCJC.
• Leader of the Opposition in the Senate (since May 14, 2025).
• Deputy Whip of the Opposition (since May 20, 2022).
• Former Speaker of the Senate (May 4, 2015 – December 2, 2015).
• Former member of BANC (40th, 41st, and 44th Parliaments).

Engagement on Privacy

• No direct contact with the OPC.

Other issues of relevance

• In 2022, over the course of the legislative passage in the Senate of Bill C-11, An Act to Amend the Broadcasting Act, he often expressed his concerns about the power granted to the CRTC to impose conditions respecting the discoverability of Canadian programs and programming services, notably with regard to algorithms that rely on personal information or the analysis of personal information to determine whether user-generated content is Canadian.

Background

• Appointed in 2024; new member of LCJC.
• Bachelor of Laws in 1984 and a Master of Laws in 1989 from Université Laval in Quebec City. She was called to the Quebec Bar and began her career in the Quebec public service in 1988.
• Former President and CEO of the Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité au travail du Québec.
• Former Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Labour, and Assistant Deputy Minister of Networks at the Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sport (Quebec).

Engagement on Privacy

• No direct contact with the OPC.

Other issues of relevance

• None

Background

• Appointed in 2023, background in Law.
• Returning member of LCJC.
• Former Chief of the Paqtnkek Mi’kmaw Nation (2013-2020).
• Former Assembly of First Nations’ Regional Chief for Newfoundland and Nova Scotia (2020-2023).

Engagement on Privacy

• No direct contact with the OPC.

Other issues of relevance

• At committee stage and for various topics, he indicated an interest in knowing more about how privacy impact assessments are undertaken by the federal departments, the issue of privacy and the protection of DNA, and how to strike the right balance between the administration of justice and privacy rights.

Background

• Appointed in 2016, background in journalism, mediation, and public administration.
• New member of the LCJC Committee.
• Former member of the SECD Committee (42nd and 44th Parliaments).
• Former Quebec Protecteur du Citoyen (2006-2016).

Engagement on Privacy

• No direct contact with the OPC or engagement on privacy issues.

Other issues of relevance

• None

Background

• Appointed in 2024, background in education and philosophy.
• New member of the LCJC Committee.

Engagement on Privacy

• No direct contact with the OPC or engagement on privacy issues.

Other issues of relevance

• None

Background

• Appointed in 2016; Returning member of LCJC.
• Graduated from Dalhousie Law School in 1984 with honours in the Clinical Law Programme and completed post graduate work in the area of forensic mental health.
• Former member of SECD (42nd, 43rd, and 44th Parliaments).
• In the past, she sponsored several iterations of a bill that sought to amend the Criminal Records Act to provide for the expiry of criminal records.

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Other issues of relevance

• In June 2022, during the appearance of the current Commissioner before the Committee of the Whole regarding his appointment, Senator Pate invited Mr. Dufresne to comment on the departmental accountability for lack of adherence to privacy measures.

Background

• Appointed in 2018, background in journalism.
• Returning member of the LCJC Committee.
• Former member of the SECD Committee (43rd and 44th Parliaments).
• Former member of the BANC Committee (44th Parliament).

Engagement on Privacy

• No direct contact with the OPC or engagement on privacy issues.

Other issues of relevance

• In June 2025, during the consideration at Committee of the Whole of Bill C-4, Making Life More Affordable for Canadians Act, she shared with Minister Champagne that, in her opinion, the bill sets a lower standard of privacy protection for people involved with political parties.
• In May 2023, during QP, she asked the Government Representative in the Senate to commit on behalf of the Government on implementing strong protection for end-to-end encryption to help protect Canadians’ privacy and health information.
• During the debates on the past iterations of the current Bill S-209, Protecting Young Persons from Exposure to Pornography Act, she often insisted on the necessity of striking the right balance between the use of facial recognition software for determining the users’ age and the protection of young people’s privacy rights, especially when AI is involved in the process.

Background

• Appointed in 2013, background in insurance brokerage, life insurance and banking.
• Founding member and current Leader of the Canadian Senators Group (since November 4, 2019).
• Returning member of the LCJC Committee.

Engagement on Privacy

• No direct contact with the OPC.

Other issues of relevance

• In June 2023, during the debate at third reading of Bill C-47, Budget Implementation Bill, 2023, No. 1, he opposed Division 39 of the bill on the regime applicable to political parties regarding their collection, use, disclosure, retention and disposal of personal information. In his views, the division provides no details on how political parties should implement the regime internally and preserves their exemption from privacy legislation.
• During the same debate, he moved an amendment to repeal 385.2 of Division 39 (definition of personal information) and to add a sunset clause of two years to Bill C-47 to force the political parties to update their privacy policies within that timeframe. The Senate defeated the motion.
• He participated in the 2017 BANC Committee study on cyber security and cyber fraud.