OTTAWA — Ottawa must take urgent action in response to the Cambridge Analytica scandal to protect citizens’ privacy rights and prevent the manipulation of Canada’s democratic system, a parliamentary committee has warned.

The House of Commons’ ethics committee unanimously recommended sweeping changes to Canada’s privacy regime Tuesday, including bringing in strict data protection rules similar to those recently adopted by the European Union.

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The recommendation comes after weeks of study into the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where 87 million Facebook users had their personal information unknowingly harvested for use by the political consulting firm.

“The scandal has brought to light issues relating to mass data harvesting, the use of data for nefarious purposes, and the threats and challenges these questionable methods can create for democracies around the world,” the committee’s interim report stated.

“In the committee’s view … it has become quite apparent that the government of Canada must urgently act in order to better protect the privacy of Canadians.”

The committee’s recommendations can be grouped into three broad categories. First, they suggest applying Canada’s privacy laws to federal political parties, as well as increasing transparency around how political actors use big data to target voters or advertising.

Second, the committee restated earlier recommendations to increase the power of the federal privacy commissioner, giving the office enforcement powers like levying fines and seize company’s documents in the course of an investigation.

Finally, and perhaps most consequentially, the committee recommended the Liberals urgently move to mirror the strict privacy framework recently adopted by the European Union, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Taken together, the measures would represent a significant shift in Canada’s privacy regime.

In a statement to the Star, Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould’s office thanked the committee for their recommendations and committed to reviewing them.

“We take the protection of Canadians’ data and personal information very seriously,” wrote spokesperson Nicky Cayer.

“(Bill C-76, the Liberals election law changes), if passed, will compel political parties to be transparent about the ways they collect, use and protect Canadians’ personal data.”

Bill C-76 does create a requirement for political parties to put privacy policies in place, but provides no independent oversight to ensure parties are following their own rules. In effect, NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus said, it amounts to a “pinky swear from political operatives.”

“I think this study has been a real wake-up call for the power of big data and the misuse of big data to undermine the validity of elections,” Angus told the Star Tuesday.

“I think up till now, political parties have tip toed around it. But we really need to confront these issues.”

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One potential avenue to confront the issues, should the Liberals want to, is through newly-announced consultations on a national data strategy. Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains told the Star Monday the data strategy is expected touch on a number of issues, including data sovereignty and ownership, as well as democratic integrity.

MP David Lametti, Bains’ parliamentary secretary, told reporters Tuesday the government will examine the committee’s recommendation to bring in GDPR-equivalent protections for Canadians.

“Obviously GDPR is new and that’s seen as the latest iteration of a privacy regime with some added features,” Lametti said. “We’ll look at how our domestic law measures up.”

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