Privacy Office Probes Banks Giving Protesters’ Info to CSIS, RCMP Under Emergencies Act

Privacy Commissioner of Canada Philippe Dufresne waits to appear before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, in Ottawa on Aug. 8, 2022. Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) is currently examining three files pertaining to the Trudeau government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act last winter, including the order requiring financial institutions to send information on “designated persons” to security agencies.

The OPC provided information on this work in a Jan. 24 brief submitted to the Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency (DEDC), a body of MPs and senators established according to the Emergencies Act to examine the government’s invocation of the act.