Daniel Therrien was appointed Privacy Commissioner of Canada on June 5, 2014 after three decades serving Canadians as a lawyer with various federal departments.
Commissioner Therrien began his career practising correctional law for the Department of the Solicitor General, the Correctional Service of Canada, and the National Parole Board. He then practised immigration law at the Department of Justice and Citizenship and Immigration Canada, becoming Assistant Deputy Attorney General, Public Safety, Defence and Immigration Portfolio at the Department of Justice in 2005. In that capacity, Commissioner Therrien had a leadership role in giving legal advice to government on public safety and national security issues. He was also instrumental in negotiating the adoption of privacy principles governing the sharing of information between Canada and the U.S. under the Beyond the Border accord.
Commissioner Therrien holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Licence en droit from the University of Ottawa. He was called to the Quebec Bar in 1981.