Industry Committee starts clause-by-clause study of C-27

The House of Commons industry committee continued its clause-by-clause study of Bill C-27, the Digital Charter Act, Wednesday. The MPs were looking at the preface of the legislation. The afternoon session began with Liberal MP Ryan Turnbull, the parliamentary secretary to Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, moving a sub-amendment to the Conservatives’ first amendment. He added language about privacy and data protection, minors’ privacy being worthy of further protection, and the application of national and international standards when interpreting the law. Conservative MP Brad Vis began debate, noting that the phrase “best interest of the child” would disappear from the preamble if the sub-amendment were to pass. He said it was paramount that the privacy of minors is protected. “I believe that the law should recognize the rights of the child and the right to be a child,” the BC MP stated. He told the panel that the Conservatives hosted a meeting with Privacy Commissioner Philippe Dufresne to discuss the amendments to the bill. The NDP’s member of the committee, Brian Masse, also took part in the discussion, which occurred on Tuesday. Vis cited various pieces of legislation, both national and provincial, that employed the phrase “best interest of the child.” He asserted it should be restored to the bill. Mark Schaan, senior assistant deputy minister, strategy and innovation policy sector at the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development appeared as an expert witness. He said most of the citations Vis made referred to family law, not commercial law. Restoring the clause could cause problems for commercial entities. Conservative industry critic Rick Perkins wondered if foreign legislation could be used along with Office of the Privacy Commissioner directives to steer the application of the law. “I think some measure of OPC guidance, international best practices can afford corporations in a number of these spaces the capacity to be able to know how and when to interpret its obligations,” Schann replied. “I think international case law can be useful but obviously needs to be brought back to the crux of what is their legal regime, what is their overall system, how similar or non similar is it to ours, what obligations do they possess in terms of their authorities.” Turnbull received unanimous consent to revert the second clause of the sub-amendment to the Conservatives' original wording. The sub-amendment, and the main amendment, passed without a recorded vote. An NDP amendment was deemed to be redundant and struck from the agenda. The committee will continue examining the bill in-depth next Monday. – Reporting by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca

Industry Committee starts clause-by-clause study of C-27

News | April 11, 2024

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Industry Committee starts clause-by-clause study of C-27

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