'It will not protect Nova Scotians': Privacy commissioner pleads for updated law
Jean Laroche | CBC News | Posted: February 27, 2019 7:33 PM | Last Updated: February 27, 2019
Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act last updated in early 90s
Nova Scotia's information and privacy commissioner took her fight for an overhaul of the province's access and privacy law to the floor of the legislature Wednesday.
In what may have been a first for the office, Catherine Tully spoke directly to members of the public accounts committee imploring them to modernize the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
"We have to have a change," Tully said during her almost two hours of testimony. "We cannot stay with this law."
The act was last rewritten in 1993 — a time when there were a mere 130 websites on the World Wide Web compared to more than a billion today, said Tully.
She noted Google was not founded until 1998 and Facebook wasn't created until more than a decade after the act was last updated.
"It will not protect Nova Scotians," Tully warned legislators.
Tully and her predecessors have been calling for new rules and expanded powers for decades, but successive governments have largely ignored commissioners' recommendations.
Her appearance before the all-party committee was in response to a report she issued last month, scathing in its criticism of the way the Nova Scotia government handled the province's largest privacy breach.
Rather than simply answer questions put to her, Tully used the occasion to advocate for what she sees as a long overdue modernization of the law.
"We need to have a modern privacy law," she said. "Europe is miles ahead of us.
"Why would we want less for Nova Scotians than everybody else has?"
Education Minister Zach Churchill, who sat in on the meeting, was noncommittal about whether the government should initiate an overhaul, saying he hasn't looked through the act.
"I'm generally suspicious of anybody asking for more power, as a rule," he said after the meeting. "But as the process is, recommendations are made, the elected government who is accountable to the people make decisions."
Fellow Liberal Suzanne Lohnes-Croft was the only committee member from the government side of the House to offer any support for Tully's position.
"I think we can take a look at it and see if we agree that it should be done," she told CBC News. "I think she did make a compelling arguement."
Opposition members offered their full endorsement of Tully's call for an overhaul, with NDP MLA Lisa Roberts calling for reform of the act.
Tory MLA Tim Halman voiced a similar opinion.
"I think [Tully] makes extremely valid points," he said. "This government needs to listen to that."
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