My duty as Privacy Commissioner of Canada is to champion and defend the legitimate privacy rights of every Canadian, whether it be an unemployed labourer or the Prime Minister of our country. And part of that duty is to insist that Canadians do not forfeit their fundamental privacy rights simply by holding public office. Inevitably, there are instances where access to information and privacy rights come into conflict. Except when there are over-riding public interest considerations such as public safety, it is my profound conviction and our courts have consistently taken a similar view that privacy must take precedence. Access to information is an administrative right that may lead to better government.
Privacy is a fundamental human right that is essential to freedom and dignity.
That is why privacy is not only an individual right it is also a shared value, a social, public good. Our society as a whole has a stake in the preservation of privacy. As I have often said, none of us wants to go through life feeling that at any moment someone may be, either metaphorically or literally, looking over our shoulder. If we have to weigh every action, every purchase, every statement, every human contact, wondering who might find out about it, judge it, misconstrue it, or somehow use it to our detriment, we are not truly free. It is from this perspective that your pursuit of agendas is totally unacceptable.