ArriveCANNED

The University of Ottawa Centre for Law, Technology and Society presents:

Although there have been ongoing government efforts since the 2000s to collect increasing amounts of data about travellers to Canada, the pandemic provided the ideal circumstance under which this type of system could be trialled. The Government of Canada accordingly introduced ArriveCAN in April 2020 'to create a secure and user-friendly way to help travellers comply with covid19 border measures'. The use of this facility became mandatory in November 2020 and was going to be brought in permanently for all travellers until it was abruptly cancelled in October 2022. This panel will discuss the circumstances and concerns around the introduction and prolonged use of ArriveCAN and highlight the important issues at play in this form of surveillance.

About the Speakers

Dr. Ciara Bracken-Roche is an Assistant Professor in the School of Law and Criminology at Maynooth University, and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa. She sits on the Inter/national FOI Research Council of the Centre for Access to Information and Justice at the University of Winnipeg. She is also a member  of the advisory board for a new publication called The Study Up, "a peer-reviewed publication featuring critical, investigative research using freedom of information (FOI) and access to information (ATI) disclosures as data." She is also a long standing member of the Surveillance Studies Network, the International Studies Association, and WIIS-Canada.

Vivek Krishnamurthy is a Faculty member at the Centre for Law, Technology and Society and the Samuelson-Glushko Professor of Law within the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, at the University of Ottawa, where he is the Director of the Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC). His teaching, scholarship, and clinical legal practice focus on the complex regulatory and human rights-related challenges that arise in cyberspace. He advises governments, activists, and companies on the human rights impacts of new technologies and is a frequent public commentator on emerging technology and public policy issues.

Dr. David Murakami Wood is a Faculty member at the Centre for Law, Technology and Society, and a Professor of Critical Surveillance and Securities Studies in the Department of Criminology of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ottawa. He is an interdisciplinary specialist in surveillance, security and technology from a global urban perspective, working mainly in Canada, Japan, the UK and Brazil. He is a leading organizer in the field of surveillance studies as co-founder and now co-editor-in-chief of the international, open access, peer-reviewed journal, Surveillance & Society, co-founder and a current director of the Surveillance Studies Network, co-editor of Surveillance Studies: A Reader (Oxford University Press, 2018), Big Data Surveillance and Security Intelligence (UBC Press, 2021), and the forthcoming International Handbook of Surveillance Studies (Edward Elgar).

Bianca Wylie is a writer with a dual background in technology and public engagement.  She is a partner at Digital Public and a co-founder of Tech Reset Canada. She worked for several years in the tech sector in operations, infrastructure, corporate training, and product management. Then, as a professional facilitator, she spent several years co-designing, delivering and supporting public consultation processes for various governments and government agencies. She founded the Open Data Institute Toronto in 2014 and co-founded Civic Tech Toronto in 2015.

Moderator

Dr. Valerie Steeves is Co-Director (Interim) of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society, and a Full Professor in the Department of Criminology of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ottawa. Her main area of research focuses on the impact of new technologies on human rights. Dr. Steeves is the principal investigator of The eQuality Project, a SSHRC-funded partnership of researchers, educators, advocates, civil society groups, and policymakers who are interested in examining the impact of online commercial profiling on children’s identities and social relationships. As the lead researcher for MediaSmart’s Young Canadians in a Wired World research project, she has been tracking young people’s use of new media from 2004 to 2020.