Speakers

is Emeritus Professor of Political Science and Fellow at the Center for Global Studies at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. For over thirty years, his research has focused on the comparative analysis of privacy protection policy at domestic and international levels. In addition to numerous scholarly and newspaper articles, he has published seven books on these subjects, including The Governance of Privacy (MIT Press, 2006), as well several policy reports for national and international agencies. His current work focusses on the importance of privacy for democratic rights, and on the capture and use of voters’ personal data by political parties in Western democracies.

is the president of the Whistleblowing Canada Research Society. She has had a varied career in business, health care and government (federal public service, advisor to federal cabinet Ministers, and candidate for public office). She also practiced as a Family and Workplace Mediator. She has been active in professional, community and political organizations throughout her career. Her interest in whistleblowing advocacy began in the 1990’s while working in the Federal Public Service. She recently completed an in-depth, qualitative case study on whistleblowing regarding drug safety issues at Health Canada.  It highlighted many system flaws and shed light on why reprisals occur. This blend of knowledge and experience has stimulated an abiding interest in supporting conflict-friendly, ethical and accountable organizations. It also inspired the founding of Whistleblowing Canada Research Society.

Education:  BA Political Science, MA Legal Studies, Graduate Certificate Conflict Resolution, formerly a Registered Nurse – speciality Mental Health. 

Dawn Gallagher Murphy is the re-elected MPP for Newmarket—Aurora, serving as Parliamentary Assistant to both the Minister of Long-Term Care and the Minister of Natural Resources. She is also President of the Ontario section of the Assemblée Parlementaire de la Francophonie (APF) and a member of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs and the Standing Committee on the Interior. 

Appointed PA to Long-Term Care in April 2025, she plays an active role in shaping the future of the sector, with a focus on innovative solutions and the integration of emerging technologies. She previously served as PA to the Minister of Health, leading province-wide consultations on primary care expansion. 

As a Private Member she introduced a Bill proclaiming June as Seniors Month received Royal Assent in December 2024. She also introduced two unanimously supported motions—one promoting the ethical and transparent use of AI in government, and another modernizing the approval process for wastewater treatment solutions for small and rural communities, including those in the York Region. 

Before entering politics, Dawn spent more than 25 years in the secure payments industry, including 15 years as the head of her own consulting firm. She held leadership roles developing bilingual solutions for digital card payment technologies, working with major Canadian banks and clients across North America. Her expertise helped usher in innovations in mobile payments, chip cards, and contactless transactions, building trust and security in the digital economy.

is driven by finding innovative ways to ensure organizations meet their regulatory and compliance requirements, while maximizing the value of data.  She supports clients across all sectors as they navigate the intersection between privacy, technology, regulation and public policy.  Susie is passionate about kids’ online privacy.  She has degrees from Queen’s University and the London School of Economics and holds the IAPP’s Certified Privacy Professional- Canada (CIPP/C) and the Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM) designations.  

is the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Saskatchewan.

Ms. Hession David graduated from the College of Law at the University of Saskatchewan in 1985. She completed a Master’s degree at Western University and then articled with the law firm of Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt LLP in Toronto in 1989. She clerked for Justice Moldaver at the Ontario Superior Court before joining the Ontario Securities Commission as their first tribunal Adjudicative Counsel. She then served as legal counsel supervising corporate governance for Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan in the Equity Division. In 2011 she joined the Ontario Attorney General in Toronto and prosecuted fraud and other criminal organization matters involving Part VI Criminal Code applications and wiretaps. She has been active with the Canadian Bar Association criminal justice section in Ontario and Saskatchewan and was employed with the Ministry of Justice and the Attorney General in Regina, in their appellate office prior to assuming the position of Commissioner. She is the co-author of Prosecuting and Defending Fraud Cases published by Emond Publications, third edition. 

is the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. Prior to joining the IPC, Patricia was counsel in Osler’s Privacy and Data Management Group where she provided strategic advice to clients on matters of privacy, data governance, and access law.

For more than a decade, Patricia served as senior general counsel and director general at the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada in Ottawa. During that period, she was responsible for advancing a number of major cases before the federal courts and the Supreme Court of Canada; advising on critical privacy investigations; appearing before parliamentary committees on significant legislative bills; developing national and international policies; leading a national research funding program; and, overseeing a technology analysis team and laboratory.

While holding executive positions at Genome Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Patricia developed and led national strategies for addressing legal, ethical, and social aspects of health research and genomics technologies. She began her career in Montreal practicing in the areas of health law, civil litigation, human rights, privacy, and labour and employment with a leading national law firm.

Patricia obtained her business and law degrees from McGill University in Montreal, and a Master’s Degree in Medical Law and Ethics from King’s College, University of London. She is a member of the Law Society of Ontario, as well as the Barreau du Quebec, and is fluently bilingual in both official languages.

is the founder of Internet Safety Labs, a nonprofit digital product safety testing organization. Her technical industry contributions and deep knowledge of consumer software products and connected technologies span more than three decades. 

Driving change through product transparency is the heart of Lisa’s vision for safer digital products, weaving together her experience in industry standards, product development, and her commitment to reducing suffering in the world.

Lisa has dedicated the last seven years at Internet Safety Labs realizing her vision through the development of Safety Labels for websites and mobile apps—bringing people and technology together to provide empirical evidence of digital product safety risks at scale.  

was appointed Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta on August 1, 2022. She is Alberta’s fourth Information and Privacy Commissioner. 

For more than 25 years, Diane has been committed to helping governments, health care providers and businesses protect the access to information and privacy rights of citizens, patients and customers. Most recently, she served as Yukon’s Information and Privacy Commissioner, along with the roles of Ombudsman and Public Interest Disclosure Commissioner. In these roles, she helped to grow the offices, supported a culture of compliance across government and healthcare, and upheld individuals’ rights. 

Prior to her experience in the Yukon, Diane worked at the OIPC including as the Director of PIPA. She also worked in private practice in British Columbia supporting clients in complying with access and privacy laws, and for the former Calgary Health Region where she was responsible for the administration of FOIP and HIA. Diane has also been a member of a clinical medical research ethics board evaluating privacy risks in research proposals. 

Diane obtained her law degree from the University of Victoria in 2009 and has been called to the bars of British Columbia, Alberta and Yukon. 

As Information and Privacy Commissioner, one of Diane’s priorities is to ensure access and privacy rights are prioritized in Alberta’s efforts to diversify the economy through data-driven innovations. This includes advocating for modernized access to information and privacy laws that enable digitization across Alberta’s public, health and private sectors while safeguarding the rights of Albertans. 

Adam Molnar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Legal Studies at the University of Waterloo and Executive Director (Interim) of the Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute (CPI). His research spans cybersecurity policy, surveillance studies, digital rights, and legal technology, with funding from Social Sciences Humanities Research Council and The British Academy.

He is currently Principal Investigator on a project examining the risks and regulation of workplace surveillance in Canada’s digital economy. At CPI, he leads a community of researchers drawn from all six faculties, bridging technical cybersecurity research with broader questions of governance, privacy, and social impact. He recently guest-edited a special issue of Internet Policy Review on the craft of interdisciplinary research and methods in public interest cybersecurity, privacy, and digital rights governance.

is the Executive Director of the Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange (CCTX).

is a Full Professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa.  She was the lead researcher of Young Canadians in a Wired World from 2001 to 2022 and is the principal investigator of The eQuality Project, a cross-sectoral partnership looking at young people’s experiences of privacy, surveillance and equality in networked spaces.