Media Advisory - The privacy of Canadians must be protected!

TORONTO, Jan. 15, 2014 /CNW/ - The Edward Snowden revelations have highlighted how little Canadians know about their own government's surveillance operations. The questionable activities of the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) and its "Five Eyes" partner, the NSA, have shown that we are vulnerable to both indiscriminate data collection and warrantless surveillance. There has been startling little debate about CSEC's lack of transparency and the absence of appropriate oversight.  To put the spotlight on these important issues, Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner, Dr. Ann Cavoukian, will host a public symposium to stress the urgent need for legislative reform and demonstrate how Canadians can still have essential security while maintaining their right to privacy.

Event Date:	January 28, 2014 (International Privacy Day)
Time:	8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Location:	MaRS Discovery District, 101 College Street, Toronto

Commissioner Cavoukian will lead off the event with a keynote speech and then highly respected thought leaders will share their unique perspectives through various presentations including two panels of experts:

Panel 1:

• Ron Deibert, Director, the Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto
• Andrew Clement, Professor, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto
• Wesley Wark, Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa
• Khaled El Emam, Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa

Panel 2:

• Nathalie Des Rosiers, Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa
• David T.S. Fraser, Partner, McInnes Cooper
• Micheal Vonn, Policy Director, British Columbia Civil Liberties Association
• Rainey Reitman, Activism Director, Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Amie Stepanovich, Director, Domestic Surveillance Project, Electronic Privacy Information Center

The Hon. Wayne Easter, Public Safety Critic, Liberal Party of Canada, will discuss his private member's bill which proposes more oversight for CSEC.

Two special video messages will be presented from:

• William Binney, Mathematician/Analyst, Former Intelligence Official with the NSA
• Dr. Alexander Dix, Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, Berlin, Germany

Media planning to attend the event, please register with the contact below. Media availability with the speakers will be available at the event. Pre-event and post-event interviews are available upon request.

For those wishing to attend virtually, the symposium will be webcast live and registration is available at realprivacy.ca.

SOURCE: Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner/Ontario

Trell Huether
Office of the Information & Privacy Commissioner of Ontario
416-326-3939
[email protected]