Privacy and Surveillance: A Panel Discussion at the Schulich School of Law’s Canadian Technology Law Conference

Recorded at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University in Halifax, this “Privacy and Surveillance” presentation features a panel of experts on privacy, surveillance, policing technology and data protection: Moderator: Jonathon Penney, Osgoode Hall Law School, Tamir Israel, Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Andrea Slane, Ontario Tech University, and David Fraser, McInnes Cooper. Bringing together legal practice, academic research and civil liberties advocacy, the presentation explores how inexpensive, pervasive tools such as CCTV networks, cell site simulators, facial recognition systems and remote device hacking expand state and corporate surveillance while existing Canadian privacy statutes struggle to provide clear limits, transparency and accountability for law enforcement and other institutions.

Drawing on investigations into police use of Clearview AI and similar technologies alongside evolving case law under section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that constrains broad cell-tower and location data requests affecting large numbers of non-suspects, the speakers emphasize the need for stronger oversight by privacy regulators, courts and police service boards when agencies deploy AI-driven analytics, drones and large camera networks that routinely capture data about people who are not under suspicion. The discussion links these public sector issues to surveillance capitalism and workplace monitoring in the private sector, showing how algorithmic profiling, productivity tracking and automated decision making can entrench bias, chill democratic participation and erode trust, and it highlights emerging governance work such as the Law Commission of Ontario’s AI in Criminal Justice project and new duties for Ontario police boards under the Community Safety and Policing Act, 2019.

For legal practitioners, the presentation underscores practical steps such as demanding meaningful disclosure from police and corporate actors, using privacy, human rights and labour frameworks together to challenge intrusive technologies, insisting on rigorous privacy and technology impact assessments before adoption, and engaging communities in deciding when surveillance tools are proportionate, rights-compliant and socially legitimate.