Canadian privacy lawyer David T.S. Fraser blogs:
I had the honour of being invited to speak to the Canadian Bar Association’s Alberta branch earlier this week about cross-border privacy issues.
We have had to deal with them rather acutely in Nova Scotia since the passage of the Personal Information International Disclosure Protection Act (PIIDPA), which prompted me to take a closer look at the different regimes for access to personal information by law enforcement and national security types on both sides of the border.
Most people are surprised to learn that some of the most “problematic” provisions of the USA Patriot Act are replicated in Canadian law in the Anti-Terrorism Act. We just don’t hear about it as much. People are also surprised to learn of huge amount of information sharing that takes place between agencies in Canada and their counterparts in the US.
You can read more and see the PowerPoint presentation on his blog.