A coalition of Canadian civil rights groups on Wednesday called for privacy legislation to regulate the collection of personal information by federal national parties. The appeal comes after Parliament repealed a related law in March.

The statement said federal political parties remain left out in the current Canadian privacy framework, allowing them to collect voters’ information—including addresses, demographics, and issue preferences—without external oversight. The groups cited findings that 80 percent of Canadians believe that privacy legislation should apply to federal political parties as it does to the private sector.

The statement called on all the parties to legislate a regulatory framework on the collection of personal information by federal political parties before the next election. It also called for the rejection of legislation that does not guarantee independent oversight.

There were two major legislative changes to the current privacy framework regulating federal political parties this year. In March, Parliament passed Bill C-4, which comprised several changes to the country’s income, excise, and carbon taxes. The bill had also buried amendments to the Canada Elections Act. The amendment removed the requirement to submit a personal information protection policy to the Chief Electoral Officer to register as a party. It also deemed such a requirement to have never been in force, exempting parties from privacy infringements over the last two decades.

Another Bill C-25, passed on June 11, brought back the parties’ requirement to report their privacy policy and notify voters of a data breach. Yet Michael Geist, a privacy law professor at the University of Ottawa, criticized the bill for imposing the “least onerous” privacy obligations on the parties and lacking key safeguards such as limits on the purpose of collection and data retention. He also added that the independent watchdog continues to lack jurisdiction over the parties in enforcing the country’s privacy law.

Bill C-4 renders all provincial frameworks inapplicable to federal political parties. It was a direct response to a 2024 ruling from the Supreme Court of British Columbia, which affirmed that the provincial privacy law applies to federal political parties to protect the province’s residents.

Jason Woywada, the executive director of BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association, said: “With increasing security risks and threats to people’s personal information now is not the time to exempt political parties from responsibility and accountability in how they handle your information. Continuing with more appeals will not enhance but undermine Canadians’ confidence in democratic institutions.”

In related news, Alberta witnessed a breach of the provincial data list, involving 2.9 million Albertans’ personal information in April. The provincial electoral authorities announced that the Republican Party of Alberta (a provincial political party) leaked the list of electors to a private company, Centurion Project Ltd. One week later, the provincial privacy commissioner, Diane McLeod, launched an investigation against the company only because the provincial law does not apply to political parties.