The Canadian government has made it clear that Canada is all in on AI for better or for worse. Amongst many concerns with the AI approach is the protection of both Canada’s sovereignty and its people’s privacy. Unfortunately the government has opted to not protect privacy and to spy on every Canadian to the point where privacy-first companies are saying they can no longer operate in Canada if the bill passes. Thankfully there are organizations like Open Media that are championing the rights of Canadians and you can help them by signing their recent petition. You cannot have political sovereignty without individual privacy.
Privacy regulators, election experts, and the public have all consistently told the government we need privacy protections to apply to political campaigning. Even Parliamentary and Senate committees say permanent party exemption from privacy law is unacceptable.
But the federal Liberals, Conservatives, and NDP have not only refused to permit any meaningful oversight of their activities; they’ve worked together to thwart it!
Over the last few years, they’ve initiated court challenges and forced through legislation, most recently Bill C-4, that effectively excludes them from normal privacy obligations that would otherwise apply under provincial laws. They’ve even granted themselves immunity from past violations of these privacy laws—going back to the year 2000.
Privacy is not partisan. With AI already supercharging voter micro-targeting, we need real privacy oversight over all party activities in place today. The basic integrity of our democracy depends on getting it right.
