(Un)Lawful Access Legislation – Ottawa Forum
ABOUT ONLINE SPYING : The government is trying to push through a set of electronic surveillance laws that will invade your privacy and cost you money. The plan is to force every phone and Internet provider to allow "authorities" to collect the private information of any Canadian, at any time, without a warrant. Learn more and sign the petition at http://StopSpying.ca/
TIME AND LOCATION:
Wednesday, Feb. 8 Amphitheatre - St. Paul University 223 Main Street, Ottawa, ON 6-10 pm
AGENDA:
6:00-7:00 pm Book launch -- The Internet Tree; The State of Telecom Policy in Canada 3.0
Refreshments in the Atrium next to the Amphitheatre -- sponsored by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA)
7:00 - 7:30
(Un)Lawful Access -- a mini-documentary that features some of Canada’s leading legal and privacy experts, who explain the dangers of the federal government’s impending "Lawful Access" legislation, dubbed "Online Spying" by Canadians. (15min)
Moving Toward a Surveillance Society -- mini-documentary from the B.C. Civil Liberties Association presenting the findings of new report on proposed law. (10 min)
7:30-8:30 Technical Panel + questions
Moderator: Roch Tassé
Stephen McCammon -- Overview of expected legislation. How are these measures justified? Why oversight and accountability protections need to be included.
John Lawford -- Going well beyond the phone book; Electronic identification data offers more than you think.
Kirsten R. Embree -- Devil in the details: what will be the impact on ISPs?
Christopher Parsons -- Lawful Access: Stepping towards a harmonized surveillance complex? The danger of surveillance by design.
8:45-9:15 Policy round table + questions
Moderator: Michael Geist
Charlie Angus, NDP
Elizabeth May, Green Party
9:15 Summary; actions; continuing activities
SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONS // Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) -- Council of Canadians (COC) - International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG) - National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) - OpenMedia - Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) - The Rideau Institute
MEDIA SPONSOR// - Rabble.ca
MORE ABOUT THE SPEAKERS //
Veteran MP Charlie Angus is the NDP ethics, access to information privacy, digital issues and copyright critic. He was elected as Member of Parliament for Timmins-James Bay in 2004, re-elected in 2006, 2008 and 2011. Named "Best Constituency Representative" by Maclean’s Magazine in 2007, he has a well-earned reputation as one of the hardest-working MPs in Ottawa. He worked for three years with northern First Nations in Quebec on issues of community development and economic opportunities.
Kirsten Embree is a partner in Fraser, Milner and Casgrain's Ottawa office and the head of FMC’s Communications Law Practice Group. Kirsten maintains an extensive practice in telecommunications, broadcasting, international trade and competition law. She has worked in both the telecommunications and broadcasting industries for over 20 years and was formerly Director of Regulatory Matters and Legal Counsel at AT&T Canada Corp. Kirsten has also held positions at the former federal Department of Communications, Telesat Canada, the Canadian Independent Telephone Association and the Canadian Film Institute.
Dr. Michael Geist is a law professor at the University of Ottawa where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law. He is an internationally syndicated columnist on technology law issues with his regular column appearing in the Toronto Star and the Ottawa Citizen. Dr. Geist serves on many boards, including the Privacy Commissioner of Canada’s Expert Advisory Board the Electronic Frontier Foundation Advisory Board and on the Information Program Sub-Board of the Open Society Institute. In 2010, Managing Intellectual Property named him on the 50 most influential people on intellectual property in the world.
John Lawford is Counsel for the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), a national non-profit organization that provides legal and research services on behalf of consumer interests, and, in particular, vulnerable consumer interests, concerning the provision of important public services. John is active in the areas of telecommunications, e-commerce, privacy and financial services law and policy from a consumer perspective.
Elizabeth May is an environmentalist, writer, activist, lawyer, leader of the Green Party of Canada, and Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands. Elizabeth became active in the environmental movement in the 1970s. Elizabeth is the author of seven books, including her most recent Losing Confidence: Power, Politics and the Crisis in Canadian Democracy. She became an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2005, was elected Leader of the Green Party in 2006, and in May 2011 became the first Canadian Green Party candidate elected to Parliament. In November 2010, Newsweek magazine named her “one of the world’s most influential women.” Elizabeth’s home is in Sidney, British Columbia.
Stephen McCammon is Legal Counsel at the Office of the Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner. Stephen provides the Commissioner with a broad range of legal services with an emphasis on issues relating to administrative law, privacy, transparency and the state. As a part of the IPC's litigation team, he has represented the Commissioner before the Ontario Divisional Court, the Ontario Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court of Canada. Prior to arriving at the Commissioner's Office in 2004, Stephen spent 10 years at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, 1st as an articling student, then as staff counsel.
Christopher Parsons is a PhD Candidate in the University of Victoria's department of political science. He researches privacy and surveillance issues as they relate to telecommunications networks, and focuses on the normative implications that surveillance has in (and on) contemporary Western political systems. He has published in CTheory, with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, and contributed to Open Media's network neutrality report, 'Casting an Open Net. He has forthcoming publications with Oxford University Press and the University of British Columbia University Press, among others.
Roch Tassé is National Coordinator of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, a coalition of 40 Canadian civil society organizations created to monitor the application of Canada`s anti-terrorism agenda. Following his studies in political science at the University of Ottawa, he worked as a community organizer and a journalist before joining the Ottawa-based NGO Inter Pares in 1985. For over 15 years, he was responsible for the organization’s programs in Central America and Mexico, with a special focus on peace-building, refugee and human rights protection, and democratic development. He has been coordinating the work of ICLMG since it’s inception in 2002.