Several editorials and articles from this past weekend paint a concerning picture of the state of privacy in Canada. In this weekend’s Toronto Star, Professor Michael Geist ponders the question, “why has the Canadian government given up on protecting our privacy?” Unfortunately, the answer to that question is increasingly clear. Not only has the government largely […]
TORONTO, May 28, 2014 – Members of the public, academics, and lawyers are exceedingly frustrated at hearing the same type of rhetoric from federal Justice Minister Peter MacKay. Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner, Dr. Ann Cavoukian, is deeply disturbed by the intransigence of his refusal to remove the sweeping surveillance provisions from Bill C-13. If […]
In response to growing push back, Minister MacKay has chosen to ignore the voices of Privacy Commissioners, Civil Liberties Organizations and the opposition calling him on to split Bill C-13 in two bills. As reported by the Globe and Mail , MacKay isn’t budging despite the bills many privacy problems: Bill C-13 gives new tracking and […]
The Federal Government is now experiencing a major push back on the invasive search and seizure aspects of Bill C-13. Though labelled as a “Cyberbullying” Bill, privacy experts have numerous concerns about many of the powers it will provide police services. The Globe and Mail spoke with Commissioner Cavoukian about the bill: “This is […]
Commissioner Cavoukian spoke yesterday with both Power and Politics’ Evan Solomon (see above) and the Current’s Anna Marie Tremonti about her numerous concerns with Bill C-13. She suggests that the government split the bill into two and immediately move forward with only the part of the legislation concerning the non-consensual distribution of intimate images. For […]
This past weekend a number of privcay issues made headlines. Professor Michael Geist published a deeply concerning article in the Toronto Star which voiced his concerns about how often Canadians phone data is handed over to law enforcement without a warrant: The absence of court oversight may surprise many Canadians, but the government actively supports the […]
Colin Freeze of the Globe and Mail reports this morning that many critics are alarmed by the potential scope of metadata collection by the Canadian government. This concern is heightened after this week’s news that Canadian Border Services requested the phone information of almost 19,000 customers from large telecoms: Privacy experts are alarmed by the […]
OpenMedia.ca has released a new video that explains how Bill C-13 threatens the privacy of all Canadians. As the Commissioner wrote in the National Post: …The government has deemed it necessary to proactively defend Bill C-13, as it is really just a new surveillance bill masked in sheep’s clothing. A few short pages which address […]
The amusing comic above is from Ruben Bolling’s comic, Tom the Dancing Bug. The humour does not end there as apparently the Pentagon may suspect that big data is a threat to national security. As Obama prepares to address Americans this morning, two articles discuss Canada’s silence on the surveillance issues. Michael Geist published […]
Dr. Cavoukian wrote a strong response to the story “Peering into Canadians’ Hard Drives” which appeared in Saturday’s National Post. The Commissioner’s letter to the editor appeared in this morning’s paper and is in full below: George Jonas’ article is both right and wrong. He is dead wrong about the extinction of privacy. Privacy is […]
