Appeared in the Toronto Star on September 6, 2014 as The Takeaway for the CRTC’s Future of TV Hearing Rogers Communications unveiled its plan for streaming more than 1,000 National Hockey League games on the Internet last week. Having invested billions of dollars to obtain the Canadian broadcast and Internet […]
Articles by: Michael Geist
Why U.S. Pressure Is Behind the Stalled Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Bill
Last year, the federal government trumpeted anti-counterfeiting legislation as a key priority. The bill raced through the legislative process in the winter and following some minor modifications after committee hearings, seemed set to pass through the House of Commons. Yet after committee approval, the bill suddenly stalled with little movement throughout the spring.
Why did a legislative priority with all-party approval seemingly grind to a halt?
My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) suggests that the answer appears to stem from the appointment of Bruce Heyman as the new U.S. ambassador to Canada. During his appointment process, Heyman identified intellectual property issues as a top priority and as part of his first major speech as ambassador, singled out perceived shortcomings in the anti-counterfeiting bill.
Why U.S. Pressure Is Behind the Stalled Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Bill
Appeared in the Toronto Star on August 30, 2104 as Why Dutch Guards Holding Indian-Made Drugs Bound for Nigeria Sends a Warning to Canadian Legislators Last year, the federal government trumpeted anti-counterfeiting legislation as a key priority in its Speech from the Throne. The bill raced through the legislative process […]
BC Court Rules on Signing Away Your Reasonable Expectation of Privacy
Canadian privacy law has long been reliant on the principle of “reasonable expectation of privacy.” The principle is particularly important with respect to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as the Supreme Court of Canada has held that the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure is grounded in a reasonable expectation of privacy in a free and democratic society.
The reasonable expectation of privacy standard provides a useful starting point for analysis, but the danger is that privacy rights can seemingly be lost with little more than a contractual provision indicating that the user has no privacy. Indeed, if privacy rights can disappear based on a sentence in a contract that few take the time to read (much less assess whether they are comfortable with), those rights stand on very shaky ground.
My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes the limits of the reasonable expectation of privacy standard emerged in a recent British Columbia Court of Appeal case involving the search of a courier package that contained illegal drugs. The court rejected claims of an illegal search, concluding that the defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy despite the fact that he had no commercial relationship with the courier company and had never agreed to, or even viewed, the terms of the contract.
What’s a ‘Reasonable Expectation’ of Privacy?
Appeared in the Toronto Star on August 23, 2014 as What’s a ‘Reasonable Expectation” of Privacy? Canadian privacy law has long been reliant on the principle of “reasonable expectation of privacy.” The principle is particularly important with respect to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as the Supreme Court of […]
Recent Posts
Privacy Lost: How the Government Deleted Bill C-11’s Key Privacy Principle Just Two Months After Passing it Into Law 
Out of Nowhere: TIFF Undermines Artistic Freedom of Expression With Forced Name Change of October 7th Documentary 
TIFF Removes October 7th Documentary Film From Schedule Citing Implausible Copyright Clearance Concerns From Hamas Terror Footage 
Carney’s Digital Recalibration: How the Government is Trending Away from Justin Trudeau’s Digital Policy 
Let Competition Be the Guide: Why the Government and CRTC Got It Right on Wholesale Fibre Broadband Access
