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wwww.canadianlawyermag.com 35 In the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada's annual report, released Dec. 2019, Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien urged lawmakers to "adopt rights-based pri- vacy laws" to modernize Canada's privacy regime. In May 2019, the federal government announced it had created a Digital Charter, which called for extensive changes to the country's privacy and data security laws and for swelling the enforcement powers of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. The legal updates likely on the way are welcome, as Graham and Tarasuk say there are some gaps in the current laws. "The biggest thing that we see is that there is no real, specific legislation to regulate the protection of employees' privacy rights," says Graham. "While we can look to PIPEDA or the Privacy Act and glean some level of accountability or what we should be doing, in Ontario, at least, there is no targeted legisla- tion in terms of what do we do with employee data when we collect it." Short of legislative frameworks, "mount- ing" privacy concerns are left to employer pol- icies, says Graham. "We're seeing the court in the steps to increase the scope of privacy protections. We're hearing from the government that they're going to be taking those steps as well. None of us are strangers to the fact that privacy is a hot topic around the world," he says. KOSKIE MINSKY LLP Practice areas: CI V IL L I T IG AT ION Construction law Employment law Privacy and compliance Professional negligence and insurance CL A SS AC T IONS Residential schools Crown liability Environmental claims Securities misrepresentation Employment law Product liability Consumer protection L A BOUR L AW Collective bargaining Employment standards Grievance arbitration Human rights Interest arbitration Internal union affairs Judicial reviews Labour relations board proceedings Occupational health and safety Strategy and training Workers' compensation PENSION A ND BENEFI T S Life and health trusts Multi-employer pension and benefit plans Pension and benefit issues in bankruptcy and restructuring Pension fund investments Pension and benefit litigation and regulator y proceedings Corporate and commercial Pension plan surpluses Public sector pension and benefit plans Taxation and pensions and benefits Philip Graham