Annual Report 2011/2012

  • August 21, 2012

Submitted by Monica Muller, Section Secretary, on behalf of Co-Chairs Sara Levine and Alexis Kerr 

Summary of Activities

Number of Meetings Held: 5 

October 12, 2011
Guest Speaker: Jennifer Stoddart, Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Commissioner Stoddart spoke about a number of current and future privacy issues, including amendments to the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, Bill -28, Canada's Anti-Spam legislation, and enforcement options for the Privacy Commissioner's Office.

November 17, 2011
Guest Speakers: Ryan Berger, Partner, Bull Housser & Tupper;
Paul Armitage, Partner, McCarthy Tetrault;
Alastair Stewart, Senior Legal Counsel, CRTC
Presentation on Canada's new Anti-Spam Legislation: Will it Create a "Stronger and Safer" Internet as Advertised? Ryan Berger spoke about the impact of the legislation on lawyers' marketing. Paul Armitage spoke about Anti-Spyware provisions of the new legislation and changes to the Competition Act. Alastair Stewart spoke about CRTC's enforcement tools under the new legislation.

November 29, 2011
Guest Speakers: Gavin Hume, Q.C., President, Law Society of British Columbia
Doug Munro, Lawyer, Law Society of British Columbia
Presentation on the Law Society's July 15, 2011 Report of the Cloud Computing Working Group.

March 29, 2012
Guest Speaker: Celia Francis, Director, IM/IT Legislation, Knowledge and Information Services, BC Ministry of Labour, Citizens' Services and Open Government
Overview of 2011 amendments to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

May 30, 2012
Guest Speaker: Elizabeth Denham, Information and Privacy Commissioner for BC
Technology, Enforcement and Legislative Change: News and Views from the Commissioner

Reports and Resolutions

On May 30, 2012 the Section wrote a letter to the Ministry of Health regarding the Pharmaceutical Services Act, 2012 (Bill 35). Given the limited time before the scheduled end of the legislature's spring session, the section simply commented on Bill 35 by providing support for the May 1, 2012 letter written by Ms Denham, Information and Privacy Commissioner for BC regarding Bill 35.

Comments and Observations of the Chair

There was a great deal of legislative change in the last year, both at the Federal and Provincial levels. To keep its members current with new developments in law, the section focused most of its meetings around new or amended legislation. We also invited both the Federal Privacy Commissioner and the BC Information and Privacy Commissioner to provide their views on new legislation and developments in access and privacy law.