Conservatives vote against Canadians’ privacy

Major data breaches affecting thousands are weakening Canadians’ confidence online, but instead of supporting an NDP bill to bring Canada’s privacy law into the digital age, the Conservatives voted against C-475 last night.

“The Conservatives are thumbing their noses at Canadians who have had their personal information compromised,” said NDP Digital Issues critic Charmaine Borg (Terrebonne—Blainville). “Canadians want strong privacy laws with consequences for organizations that don’t play by the rules.”

When Canada’s privacy law was introduced, iPods didn’t exist and most people were still using dial-up Internet. There hasn’t been a meaningful update since then. Canada’s privacy commissioner has often called for a renewal of our privacy laws.

While New Democrats work to fix what’s broken in Ottawa, the Conservative government is ducking its responsibility to protect Canadians’ privacy online.