BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association
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20250614 Access and Privacy Online
This is your Access and Privacy News Summary for Saturday, June 14th.
We’ve got stories from across the country shaped by access to information—from national defense funding to local integrity issues, wildfire preparedness, and controversial provincial actions.
We’ll follow that with a scan of cybersecurity incidents, data breaches, and surveillance concerns that are hitting public institutions hard.
Then we take a closer look at how Canadians near the U.S. border are navigating growing privacy concerns—while south of the border, Trump’s appointments and surveillance powers reveal the ongoing shift toward autocracy.
And we wrap with an important conversation and call to action from FIPA President Mike Larsen and Executive Director Jason Woywada on Bills C-2 and C-4.
Also available through: PodBean, Apple iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, ListenNotes, Podchaser, Boomplay.
Writing: Shaun Fisk | Production: Patrick Farnsworth | Music: Breakmaster Cylinder
Send comments to: FIPAOnline @ fipa.bc.ca
You can support these efforts by subscribing or donating.
Full Show Links
Calls to Action
- Letter: Withdraw Part 4 of Bill C-4
- To Protect your rights, ask MPs to:
- Stop Bill C-2 https://iclmg.ca/stop-bill-c-2/
- Stop Bill C-4 https://fipa.bc.ca/bill-c-4-2025/
Access to Information Across Canada
- Carney vows Canada will meet 2% NATO spending pledge this year
- Despite clear violation, St. Catharines Integrity Commissioner excuses Mayor Mat Siscoe for using taxpayer dollars to endorse Doug Ford
- https://fipa.bc.ca/despite-clear-violation-st-catharines-integrity-commissioner-excuses-mayor-mat-siscoe-for-using-taxpayer-dollars-to-endorse-doug-ford/
- The Pointer – https://thepointer.com/article/2025-05-28/despite-clear-violation-st-catharines-integrity-commissioner-excuses-mayor-mat-siscoe-for-using-taxpayer-dollars-to-endorse-doug-ford
- Legal experts gear up to challenge Bill 5 as First Nations pledge to ‘close Ontario’s economy’
- Communication during Bocabec wildfire ‘challenging’: report
Privacy and Cybersecurity in Canada
- Thieves gain access to about 140,000 social insurance numbers in NS Power database
- NS Power CEO, staff grilled over breach that allowed theft of 280,000 customers’ data
- Lost RCMP memory key with informant details was offered for sale by criminals: report
- Ritchot council talks cost of cyberbreach and emergency response measures
- New AI minister says Canada won’t ‘over-index’ on AI regulation
- Tracking apps monitor remote employees’ performance — and invade their privacy
Cross-Border Concerns
- Greater Napanee to consider U.S. cross-border cellphone policy
- U.S. ambassador says Canadians facing device searches, detainment ‘not a pattern’
- U.S. lawyer targeted by Trump cautions Canada on AI and attacks on dissent
Trumpism and U.S. Privacy Threats
- Trump picks right-wing lawyer and podcaster who promoted 2020 election lies as watchdog agency head
- How Trump’s pick for surgeon general uses her big online following to make money
- Takeaways from AP’s report on the business interests of Trump’s surgeon general pick
- Supreme Court allows DOGE team to access Social Security systems with data on millions of Americans
Surveillance, Protest, and Resistance in the U.S.
- An LAPD Helicopter Claimed Cops Identified Protesters From Above and Would “Come to Your House”
- Montana Supreme Court declares 2021 abortion restrictions unconstitutional
- Dozens of states sue to block the sale of 23andMe personal genetic data without customer consent
- Reddit sues AI company Anthropic for allegedly ‘scraping’ user comments to train chatbot Claude
- Judge weighs government’s request to unseal records of FBI’s surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr.
- Judge wrestles with far-reaching remedy proposals in US antitrust case against Google
Commentary
- Federal bill includes new security powers to tighten border, immigration system
- The proposed Strong Borders Act gives police new invasive search powers that may breach Charter rights
- Liberal border security bill poses serious threat to rights, coalition warns
- Immigration minister defends border bill’s restrictions on asylum claims
- Liberal government’s troubling approach to privacy revealed in new legislation
This is your Access and Privacy News Summary for Saturday, June 14th.
We’ve got stories from across the country shaped by access to information—from national defense funding to local integrity issues, wildfire preparedness, and controversial provincial actions.
We’ll follow that with a scan of cybersecurity incidents, data breaches, and surveillance concerns that are hitting public institutions hard.
Then we take a closer look at how Canadians near the U.S. border are navigating growing privacy concerns—while south of the border, Trump’s appointments and surveillance powers reveal the ongoing shift toward autocracy.
And we wrap with an important conversation and call to action from FIPA President Mike Larsen and Executive Director Jason Woywada on Bills C-2 and C-4.
Also available through: PodBean, Apple iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, ListenNotes, Podchaser, Boomplay.
Writing: Shaun Fisk | Production: Patrick Farnsworth | Music: Breakmaster Cylinder
Send comments to: FIPAOnline @ fipa.bc.ca
You can support these efforts by subscribing or donating.
Full Show Links
Calls to Action
- Letter: Withdraw Part 4 of Bill C-4
- To Protect your rights, ask MPs to:
- Stop Bill C-2 https://iclmg.ca/stop-bill-c-2/
- Stop Bill C-4 https://fipa.bc.ca/bill-c-4-2025/
Access to Information Across Canada
- Carney vows Canada will meet 2% NATO spending pledge this year
- Despite clear violation, St. Catharines Integrity Commissioner excuses Mayor Mat Siscoe for using taxpayer dollars to endorse Doug Ford
- https://fipa.bc.ca/despite-clear-violation-st-catharines-integrity-commissioner-excuses-mayor-mat-siscoe-for-using-taxpayer-dollars-to-endorse-doug-ford/
- The Pointer – https://thepointer.com/article/2025-05-28/despite-clear-violation-st-catharines-integrity-commissioner-excuses-mayor-mat-siscoe-for-using-taxpayer-dollars-to-endorse-doug-ford
- Legal experts gear up to challenge Bill 5 as First Nations pledge to ‘close Ontario’s economy’
- Communication during Bocabec wildfire ‘challenging’: report
Privacy and Cybersecurity in Canada
- Thieves gain access to about 140,000 social insurance numbers in NS Power database
- NS Power CEO, staff grilled over breach that allowed theft of 280,000 customers’ data
- Lost RCMP memory key with informant details was offered for sale by criminals: report
- Ritchot council talks cost of cyberbreach and emergency response measures
- New AI minister says Canada won’t ‘over-index’ on AI regulation
- Tracking apps monitor remote employees’ performance — and invade their privacy
Cross-Border Concerns
- Greater Napanee to consider U.S. cross-border cellphone policy
- U.S. ambassador says Canadians facing device searches, detainment ‘not a pattern’
- U.S. lawyer targeted by Trump cautions Canada on AI and attacks on dissent
Trumpism and U.S. Privacy Threats
- Trump picks right-wing lawyer and podcaster who promoted 2020 election lies as watchdog agency head
- How Trump’s pick for surgeon general uses her big online following to make money
- Takeaways from AP’s report on the business interests of Trump’s surgeon general pick
- Supreme Court allows DOGE team to access Social Security systems with data on millions of Americans
Surveillance, Protest, and Resistance in the U.S.
- An LAPD Helicopter Claimed Cops Identified Protesters From Above and Would “Come to Your House”
- Montana Supreme Court declares 2021 abortion restrictions unconstitutional
- Dozens of states sue to block the sale of 23andMe personal genetic data without customer consent
- Reddit sues AI company Anthropic for allegedly ‘scraping’ user comments to train chatbot Claude
- Judge weighs government’s request to unseal records of FBI’s surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr.
- Judge wrestles with far-reaching remedy proposals in US antitrust case against Google
Commentary
- Federal bill includes new security powers to tighten border, immigration system
- The proposed Strong Borders Act gives police new invasive search powers that may breach Charter rights
- Liberal border security bill poses serious threat to rights, coalition warns
- Immigration minister defends border bill’s restrictions on asylum claims
- Liberal government’s troubling approach to privacy revealed in new legislation