Insights
Privacy Commissioners Comment on Vaccine Passports
May 27, 2021
As the number of Canadians who have received their first dose of one of the COVID-19 vaccines increases and case numbers continue to decline across the country, we are seeing the slow easing of the public health orders and restrictions which, among other things, closed restaurants, limited occupancy, and curtailed travel. As a result, governments and businesses have begun to shift their focus on post-pandemic recovery, as re-opening plans continue to be rolled out.
To help facilitate this re-opening, and to encourage higher vaccination rates, “vaccine passports” are being considered by businesses, industries and various levels of government as a means of confirming a person’s COVID-19 vaccination status. On May 19, 2021, the Federal, Provincial, and Territorial Privacy Commissioners released a joint statement relating to certain privacy concerns raised by the development of vaccine passports . Citing a need to incorporate “privacy best practices” in order to achieve protections commensurate with the sensitivity of individuals’ personal health information, the Statement serves to remind of the serious privacy issues that should be considered alongside the potentially significant benefits that vaccine passports may ultimately facilitate. However, the Statement leaves open important questions of interpretation, some of which are discussed further in the following blog.
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McCarthy Tétrault’s Cyber/Data Group gives business leaders 360° view of data and cyber strategy
September 28, 2020
Combining a national presence and integrated cross-practice approach, McCarthy Tétrault’s enhanced Cyber/Data Group is focused on providing a 360° view of data and cyber strategy to deliver legal and business solutions that mitigate risks and unlock value-generating potential across numerous industries. The Group is led by partners Dan Glover and Charles Morgan, who have acted on several of the largest and most complex cyber/data mandates in Canadian history.
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Building Trust Into COVID-19 Recovery: Ethical Data
6 August, 2020
The third installment of our “Building Trust Into COVID-19 Recovery” series took place on June 19, 2020, during which Christine Ing (McCarthy Tétrault, Partner and Co-Leader of Technology Law Group and FinTech Group) sat down with Jeff Lui (Deloitte, Director of Artificial Intelligence) to discuss AI technologies and the ethical use of large data sets with such technologies. To see a recording of the webinar presentation, please click here.
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Building Trust Into COVID-19 Recovery: Privacy, Data Protection and Trust
August 5, 2020
The second installment of our “Building Trust Into COVID-19 Recovery” series took place on June 11, 2020. Michael Scherman (McCarthy Tétrault, Associate) sat down with Beth Dewitt (Deloitte, Canadian Leader, Data Protection and Privacy) to discuss current trends and best practices with respect to privacy and data protection. To see a recording of the webinar presentation, click here.
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Building Trust Into COVID-19 Recovery: Resilient Leadership
August 4, 2020
As a part of our “Building Trust Into COVID-19 Recovery” series, on June 4, 2020, Christine Ing sat down with Jennifer Lee to discuss embedding trust in our organizations as a means to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic successfully. To see a recording of the webinar presentation, click here.
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Technology Governance in a Time of Crisis
July 31, 2020
A major international report on the responsible governance of COVID-19 contact tracing technologies, published by the Human Technology Foundation with contributions from McCarthy Tétrault lawyers and members of the International Technology Law Association.
Written by a multi-disciplinary team of 45 technicians, lawyers and ethicists from 13 different countries, the report develops a detailed framework of analysis of the components of effective technological governance in times of crisis.
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Contact Tracing Applications Flatten the Curve and Raise Privacy Issues
July 29, 2020
Contact tracing applications are a public health solution that Canadian governments are considering to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. While these apps can help flatten the curve, they also raise particular privacy and cybersecurity issues.
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COVID-19 and Canada’s anti-spam law CASL
April 24, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing organizations to adapt their marketing to reach new customers using emails and other forms of electronic communications. However, many of these commercial electronic messages are illegal to send under Canada’s anti-spam law, CASL.
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COVID-19 and Privacy: Artificial Intelligence and Contact Tracing in Combatting the Pandemic
April 15, 2020
COVID-19 is having a debilitating effect on people’s health and their economic well-being. Getting the economy opened up could be facilitated by using innovations in artificial intelligence and contact tracing applications. The privacy issues associated with these technologies are canvassed in this blog post.
Working from Home: Cybersecurity Checklist
April 6, 2020
Working from home creates new cybersecurity challenges in a world where data breaches can lead to regulatory investigations, class action lawsuits and damage to your reputation. This post provides helpful steps your organization can take to protect itself.
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BC’s Data Sovereignty Rules Relaxed: Practical Implications of COVID-19 Order
April 2, 2020
British Columbia has temporarily relaxed its data sovereignty requirements for the public sector due to COVID-19. In this article, our BC privacy lawyers set out practical considerations for public bodies to assess the adoption of tools that store personal information outside of Canada.
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COVID-19: Canadian Government Can Now Use Patented Inventions to Respond to the Public Health Emergency
March 25, 2020
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the government of Canada quickly gave itself the authority to use and even sell inventions that have been patented by others, to the extent necessary to respond to the public health emergency.
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CSA announces 45-day extension for regulatory filings due on or before June 1, 2020 and other announcements relating to COVID-19
March 19, 2020
On March 18, 2020, the Canadian Securities Administrators (the “CSA”) announced via a press release that it will be implementing a blanket 45-day extension for certain continuous disclosure filings due on or before June 1, 2020.
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From Crisis Cartels to COVID “Cures” to Merger Clearance: How the COVID-19 Pandemic is Challenging Canada’s Competition Laws
March 19, 2020
Our Competition/Antitrust & Foreign Investment Group highlights the latest developments and provides some guidance for companies wondering what they are and are not allowed to do to weather the current economic storm.
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COVID 19: Managing Privacy and Cyber Issues
March 17, 2020
The firm's Technology and Cybersecurity, Privacy and Data Management Groups provide an overview of critical privacy and cyber issues that organizations are dealing with in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, including in relation to cybersecurity, the collection of personal information in an effort to limit the spread of COVID-19, and sending COVID-19 related messages.
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Client Solutions
Mitigating Compliance Risk in Gaming
Gaming organizations must prepare to respond to the unprecedented compliance and anti-money laundering (AML) risks likely to arise in the aftermath of COVID-19 when operations resume. Led by some of North America’s leading AML and compliance experts in the gaming industry, MT❯Play delivers solutions to the full spectrum of compliance challenges in this environment and beyond.
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Gaming in the Era of COVID-19
April 17, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented social and economic uncertainty. The hospitality and leisure industry has been among the hardest hit sectors of the global economy and traditional land-based gaming organizations are facing extraordinary financial pressures.