Episode 260: What the Government Didn’t Want You To Hear About Bill C-4 And Its Weak Political Party Privacy Rules

About this episode

This episode discusses the Senate's hearings on Bill C-4 and the privacy provisions that the government attempted to keep hidden from Canadians.

Last spring, the government quietly inserted provisions that exempt political parties from the application of privacy protections in Bill C-4, an “affordability measures” bill. The government barely acknowledged the provision in its the study of the bill at the House of Commons and refused to even hear witnesses on the issue. The Senate didn’t play along however. It conducted hearings on the privacy rules and the Senators didn’t like what they heard, amending the bill by including a sunset clause on the privacy provisions that gives that the government three years to come up with something better. The bill heads back to the House of Commons, where the government can either accept the change and have the bill pass or reject the change and send it back again to the Senate. This Law Bytes podcast episode tells the story of what the Senate heard on Bill C-4. It is what the government did not want Canadians to hear and would prefer to ignore altogether. There were witnesses from advocacy groups, but the episode focuses on testimony from privacy commissioners (current and former) along with Elections Canada leadership.

People in this episode

Host: Michael Geist

Guest: privacy commissioners

Topics covered

• political party privacy
• Bill C-4
• government transparency
• Senate hearings
• privacy protections
• affordability measures

Keywords

• Bill C-4
• privacy rules
• political parties
• Senate hearings
• government accountability
• Elections Canada
• affordability measures

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Bill C-4, House of Commons, Senate, Elections Canada

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