Alberta: lettre de la commissaire Clayton suite à la déclaration d'invalidité de la Personnal Information Protection Act

Suite à la décision de la Cour suprême du Canada de déclarer la Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) et son règlement d'application invalides (billet), la commissaire de l'Alberta, Jill Clayton, a fait parvenir une lettre aux ministres Denis et Griffits dans laquelle elle indique: 

"In my view, the legislative response that would most directly address the constitutional problem the Court stated would be to add authorizing provisions allowing the collection, use or disclosure of personal information by unions for expressive purposes without consent, in the context of picketing during a lawful strike. 

Other legislative options are available that would protect expressive activities of unions. For example, a somewhat broader exception could be enacted for expression by unions engaged in legitimate labour relations activities. However, this would go beyond the constitutional question stated by the Court. Even more broadly, union expression in the course of labour relations activities could be added to the exemption provisions that specify certain activities to which the Act does not apply. Finally, unions could conceivably be excluded from the Act altogether. However, in my view, neither of these latter mechanisms would permit the appropriate “balancing” called for by the Court. The result would be that expressive activities by unions that caused disproportionate harms, or were otherwise clearly unreasonable relative to the union’s purposes, could not be enjoined. As stated in its decision, the Court’s conclusion did not mean that it necessarily condoned all of the Union’s expressive activities [para. 38]. 

Further, these alternate solutions would remove the protections in PIPA that ensure that personal information that is collected for a union’s expressive labour relations purposes be appropriately secured, or destroyed when no longer needed. It would also remove the ability of individuals to request access to their own personal information collected by unions for such purposes. The legislative response 

I have proposed would strike the appropriate balance between a union’s freedom of expression during the course of a lawful strike and an individual’s informational privacy. PIPA already contains provisions which authorize collecting, using and disclosing personal information necessary to comply with a collective agreement (sections 14(c.1), 17(c.1) and 20(c.1)), so an amendment addressing an aspect of labour relations activities that can be relied on by unions is not without precedent." 

(Source: OIPC Alberta, Letter "Re: Personal Information Protection Act") 

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Pour aller plus loin,

• OFFICE OF THE INFORMATION AND PRIVACY COMMISSIONER OF ALBERTA,
• Letter to the Alberta Government to make PIPA constitutionally compliant", News Release, January 14, 2014.
• "Re: Personal Information Protection Act" (Letter), December 20, 2013.