Privacy

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Privacy law in Canada continues to grapple with that delicate balance between individual privacy and freedom of expression.  The recent case Chandra v. CBC provides an interesting commentary on the quickly changing world of privacy law.

In 2012 the Ontario Court of Appeal recognized the independent privacy tort of “intrusion upon seclusion”. Prior to this the case law was unsettled with respect to whether or not one could sue for invasion of privacy as a free standing cause of action.

In the Chandra v CBC case, Chandra, a former professor at Memorial University, brought at claim against the CBC for defamation and breach of privacy. The claim arose out of a three part CBC documentary called "The Secret Life of Dr. Chandra" in which the CBC investigated and accused him for scientific fraud.  CBC defended the suit on the basis of fair comment and responsible journalism. Continue Reading Privacy Law v Freedom of Expression


Can an employer monitor (i.e. spy on) their employees’ online productivity (i.e. slacker, time-wasting cyberloafing)?  Today I participated in a Lancaster House session on “Cyberloafing, Cyberspying” – two sides of the same labour relations coin, but full of divergent expectations and perspectives.  I learned a ton from my fellow panelists, Dan Scott and Susan Munn, who represent unions and the government respectively, as well as the moderators, Shana French and Anne Gregory. 

The common thread throughout the program was how to work through divergent expectations of privacy in the workplace. Continue Reading Cyberloafing, Time Theft or Productive Multi-Tasking?

In my last blog post, I discussed the emerging importance of coworking spaces in the post-industrial workforce.  In this part two of the series, at the risk of bursting this utopian post-industrial bubble, I set out some of the more pressing employment law issues with coworking spaces:  confidential information, data security, privacy and ownership of content.Continue Reading Coworking Part 2: Data & Privacy Risks

There is no doubt that we are in the midst of a massive shift in how we consume information and how we communicate with each other.  And there is also no doubt that those under 20 who grew up not knowing any different will have a very different kind of comfort around the online universe. …

When addressing the dispute at a union’s picketline, which interest trumps:  your individual right to privacy or a union’s right to freedom of expression?

This morning, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) released a seminal case that aggressively concludes that the union’s constitutional right will prevail over an individual’s privacy rights arising out of the…

Last week, I conducted a workshop on implementing a successful “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) program at the Canadian Institute’s Privacy Law & Compliance Conference.  I met a wonderful group of privacy experts who had plenty to contribute to the discussion.

We talked about the benefits, risks and costs of permitting employees to use their personal device to perform work-related tasks, which typically includes accessing the company’s network.  Over half the group was in the public sector and regularly handled very sensitive, confidential personal information.

The private sector attendees in the group had an equally strong concern about protecting highly sensitive and confidential business information.  At the end of the day, most organizations, regardless of how open they may or may not be, require a certain level of security around their data, intellectual property and personal information.

So how to implement a successful BYOD program?

Continue Reading Implementing a Successful BYOD Program

A couple of readers have asked to what extent US based social media cases will apply in Canada.  We don’t yet have a large body of social media cases in Canada (other than run of the mill termination cases involving social media), so there tends to be a lot of discussion up here about US…

Employees often take work-related data with them when they resign or are terminated from employment.  In many cases, it is an inadvertent act that has happened over time by using their own device or email account to work after hours.

Emily Chung, technology writer from CBC News interviewed me and wrote the following piece, exploring the issue:…