Submitted by Section Co-Chair, Ritchie Po
Summary of Meetings
Number of Meetings Held: 6
December 11, 2014
Guest Speakers: Sinziana Gutiu and Ryan Berger
Meeting Title/Topic: 2014 Caselaw Summary & Alberta PIPA Update
Synopsis: Update on privacy law-related case law in 2014 in Canada.
February 4, 2015
Guest Speaker: Tamara Hunter
Meeting Title/Topic: Background Checks: The Legality of Employee Reference, Credit, Criminal and Qualification Checks
Synopsis: Joint meeting with Employment Law section. Focused on background checks, personal information contained therein, and employers' obligations to protect privacy and accommodate employees and candidates, to be determined on a case-by-case basis.
April 14, 2015
Guest Speakers: Mike Wagner & Yun Li-Reilly
Meeting Title/Topic: The Right to be Forgotten
Synopsis: Discussion of the Right to be Forgotten under EU data privacy law, its applicability, and discussion on whether or not it would be considered binding law in Canada.
April 30, 2015
Guest Speakers: Janina Kon and Susan Beach
Meeting Title/Topic: CBA Pandemic Response
Synopsis: Analysis of the CBA's white paper on pandemic response, employers' obligations in response thereto, and privacy implications thereof.
May 13, 2015
Guest Speakers: Elizabeth Denham, Sara Levine, Ryan Berger, Ryan Black, Andrew Aguilar, Rohan Hill, Claire Marchant, Danielle Lemon, Charles Lupien, Cory Olson, Monica Muller, Sinziana Gutiu, Ian Christman, Ross McGowan and Doug Munro
Meeting Title/Topic: Freedom of Information & Privacy Law Conference
Synopsis: Full-day conference on privacy law-related topics, with a keynote address from the BC OIPC.
June 16, 2015
Guest Speaker: D. Ross McGowan
Meeting Title/Topic: Privacy Breach, Erroneous Disclosures and the Emerging Confluence between Nominal Individual Damages and Substantive Class Actions
Synopsis: Financial institutions, with their long traditional duties of customer confidentiality are at the forefront of many developments in the law dealing with privacy issues affecting everything from the limits of response to inquiries and investigations to mass tort data breach. Our speaker, Ross McGowan of Borden Ladner Gervais will discuss the evolving landscape focussing on both recent case law setting damages for erroneous disclosures, prescribing limits on investigations and its application to litigation requirements. Section elections were also held.
Reports and/or Resolutions Prepared by the Section
Resolution passed on June 16, 2015, by acclamation, to ratify and officially sanction the 2015/16 section executive. Financial report completed by Robert Deane.
Comments and Observations of the Chair
Support for the conference of May 13, 2015 was greatly appreciated. Would like to see greater promotional push for attendees in anticipation of conference being tentatively planned for next year.