IAPP Canada Privacy Symposium 2022

Jonathan Dewar, PhD, has spent most of his 20+ year career directing research and knowledge translation initiatives on behalf of Indigenous-governed national NGOs and has been recognized as a leader in healing and reconciliation and Indigenous health and well-being education, policy, and research. He has published extensively on these subjects, with a specialization in the role of the arts in healing and reconciliation, and has lectured nationally and internationally.

From 2012-2016, Jonathan served as the first Director of the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre and Special Advisor to the President at Algoma University, where he led research, education, curatorial, and community service programming, and taught courses in Political Science and Fine Arts. From 2007-2012, Jonathan served as Director of Research at the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, where he led the Foundation’s research and evaluation efforts. He has also previously served as a Director at the National Aboriginal Health Organization, as a senior advisor within the federal government, and within the Office of the Languages Commissioner of Nunavut.

Jonathan received a doctorate from the School of Indigenous and Canadian Studies at Carleton University, where his research focused on the role of the arts in health, healing, and reconciliation. He also holds an appointment as Adjunct Research Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Jonathan is of mixed heritage, descended from Huron-Wendat, French-, and Scottish-Canadian grandparents.

Deborah Evans is the Chief Privacy Officer at Rogers Communications, where she is responsible for privacy across all lines of business, including management of CASL and telemarketing rules. She is also responsible for Rogers’ relationship with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and the CRTC Enforcement Branch.

Deborah joined Rogers in 2007 and has progressed through various positions within the organization’s Regulatory team. She has managed Rogers’ privacy office since 2014.

Deborah holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Politics from Brock University; and a Master’s of Public Affairs, from Carleton University. She also holds a CIPP/C privacy certification from the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP).

Patricia Kosseim brings to her role as Commissioner significant experience and a wealth of knowledge in the areas of privacy and access law, having worked in public, private and health sectors, and across various jurisdictions.

Previously, Patricia was counsel in Osler's Privacy and Data Management Group and served for more than a decade as senior general counsel and director general at the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

She has held executive positions at Genome Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and has taught part-time at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law.

Patricia obtained her business and law degrees from McGill University, and a Master’s Degree in Medical Law and Ethics from King’s College, University of London, UK.

Patricia is a member of the Law Society of Ontario and the Barreau du Quebec, and is fluently bilingual in English and French.

As President and CEO of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), J. Trevor Hughes leads the world’s largest association of privacy professionals, which promotes, defines and supports the privacy profession globally.

Trevor is widely recognized as a leading privacy expert, appearing at SXSW, RSA and other privacy and technology events. He has contributed to media outlets such as the New York Times, TechCrunch and WIRED and has provided testimony on issues of privacy, surveillance and privacy-sensitive technologies before the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, British Parliament and more.

A native of Canada, Trevor previously served as the executive director of the Network Advertising Initiative and the Email Sender and Provider Coalition. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and his Juris Doctor from the University Of Maine School Of Law, where he is also an adjunct professor and member of the Law Foundation Board.

He can be found on Twitter at @JTrevorHughes.

Lynn Larson is Vice President of Legal and Chief Privacy Officer at Medcan. Lynn is a Member of the Canadian Bar Association National Privacy and Access Law Section and holds CIPP/C and CIPM designations. Lynn is a graduate of Queen’s University (B.A. Hons) and the University of Western Ontario (LL.B). Prior to joining the Bell team in 2007, Lynn practiced law at the Ottawa offices of Stikeman Elliott. Lynn was called to the bar in 2003.

Pamela Snively is the Chief Data & Trust Officer at TELUS. She leads the team responsible for privacy governance and data ethics, along with data management and a number of compliance functions, including the Anti-bribery & Corruption and Competition Law programs. Pam approaches overall data governance through the lens of customer trust, leveraging TELUS’ Customer First principle to drive the organization’s commitment to privacy and data ethics.

Pam is a lawyer but has dedicated most of her career to developing and operationalizing privacy best practices, either as a consultant or in-house. Under Pam’s leadership, TELUS has significantly transformed its approach to transparency about its data handling practices. This has included a refresh of the TELUS Privacy Centre to include layered information on TELUS' data management practices, as well as some best practices to help our customers protect their information. Pam has also published the framework for her privacy management program online, encouraging TELUS’ customers to more fully understand what responsible private sector organizations do to protect privacy.

Pamela was the recipient of the 2017 Ontario Bar Association’s Karen Spector Memorial Award for Excellence in Privacy Law. She participates in a number of national and international think tanks and governance bodies related to privacy and data governance, including serving as a board member for the Information Accountability Foundation and on the Privacy and Data Advisory Committee for the Canadian Marketing Association. She is also a founding member and Chair of Canada’s Business Privacy Group, a working group made up of some of Canada’s leading privacy professionals and industry associations focused on building trust in Canada’s digital ecosystem and legislative regime.

Pam is a frequent speaker on privacy and data ethics, and she actively encourages other organizations to join in her mission to earn and elevate consumer trust in our digital ecosystem.

Dr. Steeves is a Full Professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa in Ottawa, Canada. Her main area of research is human rights and technology issues. She is the principal investigator of The eQuality Project, an 8-year partnership initiative funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, focused on the ways in which big data practices contribute to a discriminatory environment that sets young people up for conflict and harassment. In addition, Dr. Steeves is a co-investigator in two other SSHRC funded partnerships: one looking at Big Data Surveillance and the other focused on addressing Rape Culture on University Campuses. She was also the lead researcher on MediaSmart’s Young Canadians in a Wired World Research Project, a long-term project that has been tracking young people’s experiences with networked technologies, from 2004-2021. Dr. Steeves has written and spoken extensively on privacy from a human rights perspective, and is an active participant in the privacy policy making process in Canada and in international fora.

Daniel Therrien was appointed Privacy Commissioner of Canada on June 5, 2014 after three decades serving Canadians as a lawyer with various federal departments where human rights issues were important.

He has said that the over-arching goal of his mandate is to increase the control Canadians have over their personal information. In line with this goal, he has consulted Canadians on numerous issues, including on current challenges to the consent model, which culminated in the 2019 Guidance for Obtaining Meaningful Consent, as well as on online reputation and privacy.

He has led a number of investigations with important implications for the privacy rights of Canadians. For example, in 2019 his investigations into the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal and the Equifax global data breach both found serious lack of accountability in how these companies treat the personal information in their care.

Commissioner Therrien has championed the urgent need for legislative reform of Canada’s federal privacy laws. He has called for a rights-based foundation that recognizes privacy as a necessary precondition for the exercise of other fundamental rights such as freedom and equality. He has also advised Parliament and policy makers on the need to incorporate privacy safeguards in other legislation, including those related to national security and counter-terrorism. He has led research and investigations into privacy issues that go to the heart of consumer trust and confidence. He values collaboration and consultation and works with public and private sector stakeholders, academia, civil society organizations, consumer groups and individuals to help improve privacy protections for Canadians.

Commissioner Therrien began his career practising correctional law for the Department of the Solicitor General, the Correctional Service of Canada and the National Parole Board. He then practised immigration law at the Department of Justice and Citizenship and Immigration Canada, becoming Assistant Deputy Attorney General, Public Safety, Defence and Immigration Portfolio at the Department of Justice in 2005. In that capacity, Commissioner Therrien had a leadership role in giving legal advice to government on public safety and national security issues. He was also instrumental in negotiating the adoption of privacy principles governing the sharing of information between Canada and the U.S. under the Beyond the Border accord.

Commissioner Therrien holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Licence en droit from the University of Ottawa. He was called to the Quebec Bar in 1981.