Privacy Exceptions For Picketing: Alberta's Proposed Changes To PIPA

The Alberta government moved forward last week with amendments to the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA). The proposed amendments seek to respond to constitutional deficiencies in the legislation identified in the November 15, 2013 ruling of the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) in Alberta (Information and Privacy Commissioner) v. United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 401. For more information see our November 2013 Blakes Bulletin: Picketing Trumps Privacy: SCC Declares Alberta Privacy Legislation Unconstitutional.

In this decision, the SCC struck down PIPA in its entirety on the basis that it infringed the right to freedom of expression of the United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 401 (Union) by restricting the Union's collection, use and disclosure of personal information for legitimate labour relations purposes. The SCC issued a suspended declaration of invalidity for a period of 12 months to give the Alberta government the opportunity to amend PIPA.