Stumbling Toward Total Information Awareness: The Security of Canada Information Sharing Act

(2015) 12(7) Canadian Privacy Law Review

12 Pages Posted: 26 Jun 2015

See all articles by Craig Forcese

Craig Forcese

University of Ottawa - Common Law Section

Kent Roach

University of Toronto - Faculty of Law

Date Written: June 1, 2015

Abstract

The Security of Canada Information Sharing Act (the “Act”) contained as Part I in Bill C-51 is based on the concept of “activities that undermine the security of Canada”. This is a new and astonishingly broad concept that is much more sweeping than any definition of security in Canadian national security law. In important respects, it comes close to a “total information awareness” approach or, at least, a unitary view of governmental information holding and sharing. In that respect, we consider it a radical departure from conventional understandings of both national security interests and privacy.

In this article, we first discuss what is at stake in information sharing and argue that the new Act does not give adequate attention to the risks that information sharing presents to privacy or that the sharing of unreliable information can cause injustice. In the second part, we critically examine the new concept of activities that “undermine the security of Canada”, which plays a central role in the new information sharing act.

In the third part, we examine the most important operative section of the Act. Finally, in the last part, we argue that when the broad information sharing Act becomes law, accountability reform and, in particular, revamped independent review with a whole of government mandate and power will be imperative to counteract the risks of information sharing discussed in the first part of this article.

Note: Reproduced with permission of the publisher LexisNexis Canada Inc. from Canadian Privacy Law Review, Vol. 12, No. 7, June 2015.

Keywords: information sharing, national security, Canada, bill C-51

Suggested Citation

Forcese, Craig and Roach, Kent, Stumbling Toward Total Information Awareness: The Security of Canada Information Sharing Act (June 1, 2015). (2015) 12(7) Canadian Privacy Law Review, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2622703

Craig Forcese (Contact Author)

University of Ottawa - Common Law Section ( email )

57 Louis Pasteur Street
Ottawa, K1N 6N5
Canada

HOME PAGE: http://www.cforcese.ca

Kent Roach

University of Toronto - Faculty of Law ( email )

Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A1
Canada
416-946-5645 (Phone)
416-978-2648 (Fax)

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