NDP targets net neutrality, data and privacy rights in new motion

OTTAWA — Members of the federal NDP introduced a sweeping motion Wednesday that, if passed, would push all Canadian departments and agencies to prioritize such things as digital data and privacy rights in their activities. The Digital Bill of Rights, a private member’s motion to be tabled after Easter, was presented by NDP Innovation critic Brian Masse and Public Safety critic Matthew Dubé during a press conference Wednesday. It aims to provide a lens through which government — and industry, through regulatory and legislative amendments — would perform its activities to ensure compliance with principles of digital privacy, transparency and data rights. “Right now digital rights are at the top of Canadians’ discussions,” Masse said during his opening remarks. “We’ve seen a number of disturbing things take place over the last number of years — they affect our economy, they affect our social society and they affect our democracy.” Those include Facebook Inc.’s recent data woes and Apple Inc. purposely reducing performance on its phones to avoid shutdowns. “What we need is a general playbook or a guiding principle...until we get comprehensive legislation in the House of Commons, and that could take a long time,” Masse said, adding the motion serves as a rules-based best practices approach. The motion would mandate "government frameworks overseeing digital telecommunication services in Canada" abide by a number of principles, according to a draft of the motion provided to the Wire Report. Those include measures to ensure transparent telecom fees and affordable rates, informed consent before data is used, collected or disclosed by the public and private sectors, mandatory judicial oversight when it comes to surveillance, website blocking or disconnection, having net neutrality as a core principle for the provision of digital services, and transparency when it comes to such things as device maintenance. It also stipulates that telecom service providers must take a proactive role in protecting personal information “where a failure to meet reasonable standards of due diligence constitutes negligence,” according to the draft motion. The far-reaching framework also aims to ensure digital literacy skills and explore the health impacts of digital services and products. If the motion passes, the government can ask its departments and agencies to abide by the framework and implement its principles, through either regulatory or legislative changes. For example, the CRTC can make regulatory changes if the principles are within the scope of the Telecommunications or Broadcasting Acts. If not, a legislative amendment would need to be made, Masse said. The framework looks to address the fast-moving digital landscape, to tackle some of the issues that have surfaced and those that are still at stake. As parliamentarians like Masse, Dubé and NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus call on the government to launch an inquiry into Facebook and the misuse of its data for political purposes, the government continues to debate a proposed national security bill that is clouded in uncertainty as to the extent of information collection under the proposed regime. “So one of the things that I want to see from the government,” Dubé said Wednesday, “is making sure...that those rules are clear, because given the way these investigative powers are going into the digital realm, it’s a new frontier and I think we need to understand that and not go after that on a case-by-case basis so that Canadians are reassured in advance that their interests are what’s going to be looked at before anything else.” In addition, the CRTC is faced with an application spearheaded by some of Canada’s largest telecoms to have an administrative body that could block websites with pirated content. The latter, some say, infringes on the principles of net neutrality. Coincidentally, conserving net neutrality was also a topic of discussion in the House on Tuesday evening following another private member’s motion that was filed in February by Liberal MP John Oliver. But there was little debate Tuesday, as individuals of the major parties sided with the motion, which asks the government to consider cementing net neutrality into law during the legislative reviews of the telecom and broadcasting acts. Those individuals included Conservative members of parliament (MPs) Dane Lloyd and Matt Jeneroux, who is shadow minister of science, and Masse. Jeneroux added to concerns about the website blocking proposal from the coalition called FairPlay Canada. “The blocking process would take place with little to no oversight by our courts,” he said. “Obviously this plan has internet and net neutrality experts concerned. This plan would seriously harm an open internet access for user and violates freedom of expression rights.” Masse, in addition to reiterating his support, had more to say about the Facebook data case and how it rubs against net neutrality. “There’s different ways to undermine the principles of net neutrality,” Masse said during the debate Wednesday. “You’re categorized, you’re inventoried, your behaviour is set and then that information you to certain content,” he said. “That’s the problem that we have, and the cross-over to net neutrality starts there — if we don’t have this as a foundation for the actual use of the internet, then we are lost to begin with.” — With reporting by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca and editing by Bryson Masse at bmasse@thewirereport.ca

NDP targets net neutrality, data and privacy rights in new motion

News | March 28, 2018

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NDP targets net neutrality, data and privacy rights in new motion

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