and and it's actually with a little bit
of that sadness that I'm up here to make
a sort of small little presentation I'm
saddened because for years and years and
years we've had the IEP p Canada
symposium and we've always had the
terrific participation of a lot of
Commissioners over the years and last
year in this year marked a real changing
of the guard at the commissioner level
and we saw Chantal Bernie take over for
Jennifer Stoddart and then Saskatchewan
and in Nova Scotia the commissioners
have left their blows those positions
and this year marks the last year that
we're going to have Commissioner kabuki
and join us in her capacity as
commissioner and and so I think it's
only fitting that we take a moment and
and and thank Commissioner kabuki and
for all her support energy and time that
she's put into educating us entertaining
us and providing us with a wealth of
information over the years well I think
for me one of the very first things that
comes to mind is is energetic energy in
fact I'm quite sure that energizer toy
between maybe going with an kabuki and
instead of the Energizer Bunny real
powerhouse power had a house and she's
she's also an exceptional public speaker
and whether or not it's on a small panel
discussion or as a keynote commissioner
Cavoukian has always been able to sort
of entertain and wow us with a great
style and a great energy Commissioner
Kuehne vegan has a great sense of humor
and we've seen this because I force her
every year to play that game show and
and I let her off the hook this year but
we'll see we'll see what capacity I can
get her back here in future years
definitely say what you will about her
tenure the one thing that really is
remarkable is how effective
he was as a commissioner she she
absolutely would not stop at anything to
get the result that she thought was
right and and in particular if you think
about just how effective she was in
terms of her investigations her report
her studies her white papers just just
think alone how much Ryerson is going to
be able to take advantage of her ability
to brand things because I mean everybody
knows pbd everybody knows PPD and that's
that's thanks to Hank lukien she's
definitely somebody who's pushed the
envelope she's never let her critics
stand in her way and she's always been
able to fight for what she thought was
the just result in the end I think you
would all agree with me that there is no
truer privacy champion than Commissioner
Cavoukian and I'd like to us now all to
thank her for her years of of helping us
out here at the IPP and I asked her to
join me on the stage and accept this
little gift that we have for her
so
thank you so much Chris thank you so
much for those very kind words I'm so
grateful and I'm I've such mixed mixed
emotions because I I know this is the
right time three terms is I think more
than anyone should be doing quite
frankly because you want to leave well
hopefully you still think you're
effective and you can do the work that
you need to do and in this day and age
post Snowden revelations there is so
much going on not only in terms of
surveillance but the enormous
requirement to protect privacy in the
broadest way we did a panel this morning
where we were talking about the
essential the essential need to preserve
control in the hands of individuals
because privacy is all about personal
control and freedom of choice and as the
Germans say informational
self-determination this is what it's
about this is why it's linked so
strongly to freedom and liberty and this
is what we have to grow never in a
zero-sum way never to the exclusion of
other very invaluable interests such as
big data and research and business
interests and the whole environment can
be addressed but we have to weave
privacy into the process in this
positive some win-win manner so I'm i
think the time to to move on is is this
time but as you know given that privacy
is my life I'm not leaving it and I I
hope to do continue the work at Ryerson
at the Big Data Institute which I should
tell you is the only big data Institute
in the world that is branded with
privacy so as the privacy and big data
Institute in this win-win manner so we
hope to continue the work there in the
research and I look forward to working
with any of you if you're interested in
collaborating and partnering let's talk
let me just take a moment first to thank
the amazing people in my life my office
has just been such a force
and you may be able to surmise that I'm
not the easiest person to work for
because I'm very demanding and I Drive
the people in my office crazy on a
regular basis as I Drive myself crazy so
it it is constant the pressure is
ongoing and it doesn't stop and
literally that's that's the way it has
been almost from day one so to the
invaluable people in my office that I
work with Brian Beamish my assistant
commissioner Estella Cohen my executive
director Janet cheeseburger my Director
of Corporate Services wonderful people
David Goodis my director of legal
services Manuela DeRay my associate
director of legal Rob McMahon director
of communications Michelle Chiba where's
Michelle Michelle director of policy and
special projects and and on and on my
wonderful EA Jeff Kirk I hope I'm not
leaving people out i'm sure i am forgive
me i just have the most amazing team and
i am very grateful to them and in ranae
Brett and and trish we've done the most
investigate the trish coin this
wonderful investigation we did recently
called crossing the line all about how
is it that someone's attempted suicide
information could be in the hands of
border crossing officials are you
kidding me when that story broke we just
we couldn't believe it and the first
thing of course we had to make sure was
not the case that we had to make sure
wasn't our Ministry of Health who has
everyone's health information of course
so we had to nail that down immediately
and we did and as soon as the minister
of health called me and told me it's not
us we've done a complete audit it is not
us and she was wonderful and I thanked
her profusely and then I said Minister
Matthews one more thing and please
understand why I'm asking for this I
need a sworn affidavit from you to that
effect because on this one I can't do a
trust me I need to lay the fears of the
public that their health information is
safe at the Ministry of Health and to
her enormous credit she understood why i
was asking for that and she gave it to
me so these are just some of the tales
we have so many there are so many
pressing issues that we have to continue
for
but most of all I have to thank someone
who has been my inspiration and my
strength over all these years and
without whom I couldn't do any of this
and he knows who he is and I thank him
profusely from the bottom of my heart
and I am probably the luckiest person in
the world because I have the most
wonderful meaningful work that I love
doing and I have the most wonderful life
with this wonderful individual so it's a
real win-win as always positive sum all
the way thank you so much for this