The Agenda included a wide array of topics under the theme of “Privacy and Access Laws: A Marked Shift on the Horizon” targeted towards industry experts and attendees from across the country.
As part of a panel discussion moderated by Lorne Randa, (Brownlee LLP), FIPA Executive Director Jason Woywada presented along with Allison Knight, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada. The session was titled a Deep dive on FOI and ATI reform focused on:
Access to information has been evolving since its inception and it may be time for such legislation to be reviewed and updated to come with the times. It is a reality that public bodies have had an increase in both the volume of records they hold and in the number of requests they receive year after year. These factors have resulted in challenges for both public bodies and for regulators in addressing access to information requests and reviews. This panel with explore what the key challenges in access to information are today and what reforms are necessary for public bodies and regulators to adequately address these challenges. This will include a discussion on delays in public body responses, handling of broadly worded requests, fees and charges for processing requests, and frivolous and vexation requests and requestors.
FIPAs presentation reflected the activities and research undertaken throughout the year.
Capitalizing on opportunity
Making sure FIPA was able to contribute and draw as much as possible at the conference meant we wanted to ensure we had someone in every room. To do this, in addition to the Executive Director, we brought Noah Escandor. Noah is one of FIPAs University of Victoria Law students who has been the primary drafter refreshing FIPAs Help Topics over the past two years. We thought this was a great opportunity and fit for both his further work at FIPA and his professional development entering this sector. His Insights into the conference follow.
View from the Conference
From the outset of the event, it was apparent that the speakers and presentations would provide a level of rigour and disciplinary expertise that I would not be able to access in a typical survey class. The panels held at the Symposium were not only engaging and extremely current, but most importantly provided opinions and criticisms which often clashed. Unlike in the classroom setting, I think the dynamic of differing opinions for different sectors helped me learn much more holistically about privacy and access to information law. In the same vein, I had the opportunity to network and interact with legal professionals in both the public and private sectors, with varying degrees of experience. I think being one of the few law students—if not the only student—at the event allowed me to have a refreshing and critical perspective embraced by those I networked with.
Additionally, I believe that I will be able to take this new knowledge and my expanded network back to my work at FIPA. Not only will this experience directly impact my work, but it will hopefully indirectly impact my coworkers’ projects as well. The new excitement I have for privacy and access will inform my current and future projects.
Overall, I believe this opportunity allowed me to not only learn in more depth about areas I was already familiar with, but to learn about new privacy and access topics that will keep me engaged with the field in my future career. This is especially important to me as I think it is essential for privacy and access to information law to have both young and diverse perspectives in its spaces.
Noah Escandor
Interested in being part of activities like this?
There are lots of ways to work with us or act as an Academic Advisor. We are always open to making our research results better so be sure to provide any feedback and constructive criticism regarding this publication and its methodology to FIPA at fipa.bc.ca .
