Canada's New Bill to Reform Private Sector Data Protection

The much-awaited bill to reform Canada's private sector data protection law was tabled on November 17, 2020. The ambitious bill presents a major (and often significant) rewriting of the previous bill and contains some new rights and new exceptions. It also creates a more stringent enforcement regime. This talk will highlight some of the most significant changes introduced by the bill and will flag some gaps and omissions.  It will also raise some questions worth pursuing as the bill moves to the consultation stage.

Dr Teresa Scassa is the Canada Research Chair in Information Law and Policy at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law. She is a member of the Canadian Advisory Council on Artificial Intelligence. She is the author of Canadian Trademark Law, and co-author of Digital Commerce in Canada, and Canadian Intellectual Property Law. She is a co-editor of the books Law and the Sharing Economy and Interdisciplinary Approaches to Intellectual Property Law. Her research interests include: privacy law, data governance, intellectual property law, law and technology, law and artificial intelligence, and smart cities.