VANCOUVER—In a world dominated by data, where information is shared at the speed of a keystroke, Canada’s new justice minister says striking a balance between individual rights and the digital economy is keeping him up at night.“This is the stuff that I lose sleep over,” David Lametti said in a wide-ranging interview in Vancouver on Tuesday, adding that there’s an “urgent need” to protect personal data, curb online hate speech and violent extremism and stop foreign interference in democratic elections.“It’s a huge challenge and it’s something that interests me greatly. It’s about privacy, it’s about control over one’s data, but it’s also about being protected from the kind of instantaneous dissemination of hatred that is now possible.”Lametti, a former McGill University law professor, was named Canada’s justice minister and attorney general on January 14, after B.C. MP Jody Wilson-Raybould was removed from the portfolio.Earlier Tuesday in Toronto, Innovation Minister Harry Bains announced the 10-point digital charter along with the promise of a sweeping review of federal privacy laws, but Lametti could not say when changes in policy or legislation would be rolled out.A background briefing by officials at the Department of Innovation Science and Economic Development said changes aren’t expected until after the federal election in October.Read more:New ‘digital charter’ to emphasize Canadians’ control over personal dataMinister Bains promises privacy law reviews as digital charter releasedBots, hackers and trolls: How the digital misinformation war is being waged ahead of the federal electionLast week at a Paris conference organized by France and New Zealand, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agreed to support the “Christchurch Call,” where 18 countries pledged to help eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online.Eight tech an ...
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