News

CIPPIC organized a one-day consultation in Ottawa for civil society to be briefed by federal government officials on proposed changes to criminal laws and procedures in light of the challenges posed by new technologies to law enforcement. Officials from Justice Canada, Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada (PSEPC), and Industry Canada (Competition Bureau) outlined their "Lawful Access" proposals and invited feedback from the participants. The proposals are expected to be introduced soon in the form of a bill in Parliament. CIPPIC is working with other groups and individuals to try to limit the incursions on privacy and civil liberies that these proposals would permit. Watch the CIPPIC website for more on Lawful Access...

Philippa Lawson gave a presentation on "Privacy Advocacy in an Age of Surveillance: the CIPPIC approach" at the Concealed I conference held in Ottawa March 4-5th, 2005. More information on the highly successful conference, as well as copies of presentations by Pippa and other speakers, will be posted on the "On the Identity Trail" project website.

The student-run Technology and Intellectual Property Group of the University of Toronto\'s Faculty of Law has posted video from their February 11, 2005, conference, Sound Bytes, Sound Rights: Canada at the Crossroads of Copyright Law. Conference speakers included Professor Michael Geist of the University of Ottawa, Sarmite Bulte, M.P., Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Barry Sookman, author of Sookman: Computer Law, and Professor William W. Fisher III, Hale and Dorr Professor of Intellectual Property Law, Harvard University and Director of Harvard\'s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

In response to Industry Canada\'s call for comments on its proposed exemption order for health information custodians in Ontario, CIPPIC filed comments today pointing out a substantial difference between the federal and provincial privacy regimes, in respect of permitted disclosures of personal health information for research purposes, without the patient\'s consent. Under PIPEDA, certain important criteria must be met. Under the Ontario legislation, such criteria need only be "considered" by a research ethics board.