Conservative MPs Stephanie Kusie (Calgary-Midnapore, AB) and Marilyn Gladu (Sarnia-Lambton, ON) said Treasury Board President Antia Anand should deal with 13 Canadian government agencies using spyware without a privacy impact assessment. “As a result, text messages, emails, search history, photos, and more can all be accessed without the knowledge of public servants,” said Kusie and Gladu in a letter to Anand. “A privacy impact assessment is an important process that ensures when a federal department gathers personal information, they first thoroughly check for any privacy risks and how to mitigate or eliminate these risks.”.Privacy impact assessments have to be sent to the privacy commissioner and the treasury board president. During Anand’s appearance at the House of Commons Government Operations and Estimates Committee on November 30, she said she believes the role of treasury board president “is to put in place directives and other policies that guide the public service as well as ministerial roles across the public sector.” Kusie and Gladu said this appears to be a way to distance herself as the enforcer of these policies across government institutions. Section 3.2 of the Directive on Privacy Impact Assessment states the treasury board president “holds general responsibility for registering all PIBs (personal information banks) and reviewing the manner in which they are maintained and managed in all government institutions.” When it comes to consequences, Section 7.5 of the Policy on Privacy Protection states he or she can review and revoke any actions undertaken. “We call on you, as President of the Treasury Board, to immediately enforce compliance and if these privacy impact assessments are still not initiated by year end, you follow through on your obligations by enforcing the consequences of non-compliance," said Kusie and Gladu. Conservative MP Martin Shields (Bow River, AB) said in 2022 the Commons Ethics Committee was right to look at the RCMP using spyware on Canadian politicians. READ MORE: MP Shields says use of spyware must be fully investigated“This was one the opposition parties agreed they need to look at,” said Shields. “It was to deal with spyware and what the RCMP may be doing with spyware.”
