Travelers crossing into Canada must provide their device passwords for Border Security Officers upon request in order to facilitate searches. This creates significant privacy implications for all travelers but lawyers, in particular, should be aware of the scope of the Canadian Border Services Agency’s searching authority, which could impact their duty of confidentiality and solicitor-client privilege.
Our increased focus on online connectivity has also created new cybersecurity risks regarding the unauthorized access and use of sensitive information. These threats are heightened by the fact that many Canadians were already vulnerable before the pandemic given their use of smart home devices.
The requirement to wear face masks in public indoor settings to curb the spread of COVID-19, subject to certain exemptions, has resulted in a surge of human rights complaints across the country in the context of both accessing services and employment. Based on the large volume of complaints and the public interest regarding mandatory mask-wearing […]
Professional sport has officially arrived in Halifax. The Halifax Hurricanes have been competing in the National Basketball League of Canada since late-2015; the HFX Wanderers almost won the Canadian Premier League in its second season; rumours of a Canadian Football League team coming to Halifax continue to swirl[1]; and the Halifax Thunderbirds were at the […]
COVID-19 has dominated our world for the past year. It has touched every facet of our lives. It has resulted in ever-changing rules, policies and procedures being implemented that affect the way we work, shop, socialize and engage in extra-curricular activities. Employers, in particular, have been required to radically change the way things have always […]
On November 17, 2020, the federal government introduced Bill C-11, the Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2020 (DCIA), which, if passed, will significantly reshape the Canadian privacy landscape. Organizations handling personal information must consider how the CPPA could impact their operations and take steps to implement the necessary data protection procedures to meet their obligations under the new law.
Canadian companies doing business with partners based in the EU – and where personal data collection, use and/or disclosure could take place – cannot lose sight of the impact the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) may have on their operations, especially when it comes to the cost of non-compliance.
Nova Scotia recently became the eighth province to onboard the federal government’s COVID-19 exposure notification application. Public health officials believe that if it is widely used across Canada, COVID Alert has the potential to provide an efficient way of tracing the virus. However, the introduction of this tracking technology into the national COVID-19 response presents new privacy issues for Canadians to consider.
In late March, Canada’s Communications Security Establishment warned researchers across the country to secure their COVID-19 data because “sophisticated threat actors” were exploiting the chaos of the pandemic in an effort to steal critical vaccine research. However, there has been little to no discussion beyond the CSE’s repeated warnings as to just what is being done to protect the important work of our local health and science experts.
This article was last updated on September 10, 2020 While the term “unprecedented” is being used frequently in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures that have been taken in response to it, one context where the word can legitimately be applied is the restrictions to inter-provincial travel that have been introduced in […]