Political Parties And The Personal Information Of Electors: New But Incomplete Protections

• Published date: 11 November 2020
• Subject Matter: Privacy, Privacy Protection
• Law Firm: Fasken
• Author: Ms Jennifer Stoddart and William Deneault-Rouillard

Bulletin #21 | Special Series - Bill 64 & the act to modernize legislative provisions as regards the protection of personal information

Today, we are providing an overview of the changes proposed in Bill 64 (the "Bill") as they pertain to the management of Quebec electors' personal information.

In the European Union, New Zealand and British Columbia, political parties are subject to legislation governing the protection of personal information. In Quebec, despite the proposal in the Bill to add a new Title III.1 entitled Protection of the Personal Information of Electors¹ to the Election Act,² few new obligations would be imposed on political parties with regard to protecting the sensitive data with which they are entrusted.

Background

Currently, unlike in British Columbia, there is no legal framework for political parties in Quebec governing the management of the personal information they possess.³

Technology enabling the microtargeting of individuals has been rapidly adopted by political parties.⁴ The threat to election integrity in democracies around the world became manifest in 2015 with the Cambridge Analytica matter, in which the company collected data from millions of Internet users in multiple countries (including Canada) without their consent or knowledge. It did so in order to analyze this information for political and electoral purposes. The resulting data was sold to various political actors, who used it to fine-tune their electoral strategies.⁵

Consequently, Canadian authorities tasked with privacy protection in multiple jurisdictions stressed the urgent need to reform existing laws to ensure adequate protection of electors' personal information.⁶ In British Columbia, an extensive inquiry into the practices of political parties resulted in recommendations from the Information & Privacy Commissioner,⁷ who concluded that British Columbia's electoral laws also applied to federal parties present in the province.⁸ However, at the time of writing, this matter has yet to be decided upon by the courts.

Bill 64: Some new rights for Quebec electors

The Bill proposes to extend the protection of personal information with regard to the collection, use and communication of such information by political parties. However, these new rights are highly limited and do not match the requirements imposed on businesses and public bodies in Quebec. Rather, a special framework has been created, one that only applies to entities authorized⁹ by the Chief Electoral...