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Supreme Court Confirms Privacy Survives in the Workplace

Millions of Canadians go to work each day, turn on their workplace computers, and wonder whether they have also shut off their privacy. Many employers seek to remove any reasonable expectation of privacy by telling employees that they should not expect any privacy when using workplace computers during company time.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court of Canada grappled with the question of workplace privacy and arrived a somewhat different conclusion. My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes it ruled that the workplace environment may diminish an employee’s reasonable expectation of privacy, but it does not remove the expectation altogether.

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November 2, 2012 3 comments Columns

EU Drops Demands for Inclusion of ACTA’s Criminal IP Provisions in CETA

Reports this morning from EDRI, a European digital rights group, indicate that Europe has now dropped demands to include ACTA-style intellectual property criminal provisions within the Canada – EU Trade Agreement. The inclusion of IP criminal provisions in CETA was the source of considerable outrage in Europe in the aftermath […]

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November 1, 2012 3 comments News

Government To Delay Implementation of Bill C-11’s Internet Provider Rules

The government is slated to bring Bill C-11, the copyright reform bill, into effect next week without the “notice-and-notice” rules for Internet providers. The revelations come in a Privy Council document that provides notification on when the bill will come into force. It is expected that the order bringing the […]

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October 31, 2012 4 comments News

De Gucht Says “No Illusions” About Difficult CETA Issues

EU Commissioner Karel de Gucht says that there should be “no illusions” about the remaining difficult issues in the Canada – EU Trade Agreement, suggesting that completion by the end of the year remains uncertain. De Gucht indicated that CETA once included ACTA language, but says that has now been […]

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October 31, 2012 1 comment News

Government Announces Plan To Open “White Spaces” Spectrum

Industry Minister Christian Paradis announced yesterday that the government is “opening up unused spectrum between TV channels – the so-called “white space” – for licence-exempt applications.” The government consulted on the issue last year. I wrote about white spaces in 2009.

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October 31, 2012 4 comments News