Access and Privacy Online

This is your Access and Privacy News Summary for Saturday, February 7th. 

This week, access-to-information requests continue to expose deep accountability gaps—from millions in executive bonuses paid despite missed federal performance targets, to Alberta municipalities left carrying hundreds of millions in unpaid oil and gas taxes. 

We’re also looking at how transparency failures intersect with human harm—whether that's labor trafficking hidden inside Canada’s temporary worker programs or privacy breakdowns affecting seniors, victims of crime, and students navigating AI in the classroom. 

Internationally, Europe is taking some big steps—there's a raid of a major tech platform and evidence they are walking away from U.S.-based digital infrastructure in the name of privacy and sovereignty. 

And in the United States, we’re tracking the growing consequences of surveillance-driven immigration enforcement, weak redaction practices, and the erosion of oversight norms.  

Late breaking this week: Bill C-4, Part 4, is heading toward a unique Senate committee. It is not too late to contact Senators or your MP. You’ll find links in the show notes, and we'll be following developments closely. 

Show Notes: https://fipa.bc.ca/nm/20260207-access-and-privacy-online 

Individual Stories: https://fipa.bc.ca/tag/2026-season-episode-06 

FIPA Bill C-4 

• Bill C-4 Dashboard: https://fipa.bc.ca/fipa-bill-c-4-part-4-dashboard/  

• Bill C-4 Backgrounder: https://fipa.bc.ca/bill-c-4-background/ 

• Send a message to members of parliament: https://fipa.bc.ca/c-4-email-to-mps/ 

• Send a message to Senators: https://fipa.bc.ca/c-4-email-to-senators/ 

• Bill C-4 Resources: https://fipa.bc.ca/bill-c-4-resources/ 

• Donate to Help Us Reach More Canadians: https://fipa.bc.ca/pr/donate-c4/ 

Support these efforts by subscribing or donating. 

Send comments to FIPAOnline@fipa.bc.ca 

Our Contributors: 

Writing: Shaun Fisk | Production: Patrick Farnsworth | Music: Breakmaster Cylinder  

Access and Privacy Online: https://fipa.bc.ca/research-resources/podcasts/access-and-privacy-online/  

News stories through the Canadian Press and Feedly. 

Available through: PodBean, Apple iTunes,  YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM. ListenNotes,  Podchaser, Boomplay 

This is your Access and Privacy News Summary for Saturday, January 31st. 

This week, artificial intelligence is colliding with privacy, democracy, and public trust—from Google’s move to fold personal data directly into AI-powered search to renewed federal plans for an online harms bill that could reshape how Canadians, especially children, experience the internet. 

We’re also tracking how access-to-information requests continue to reveal gaps in accountability, from policing and municipal spending to environmental protection, while privacy failures—inside police forces, public utilities, and care homes—raise urgent questions about oversight and transparency. 

And in the United States, we’ll look at platform power, data breaches, voter privacy, and what happens when democratic processes slip out of public view. 

Show Notes: https://fipa.bc.ca/nm/20260131-access-and-privacy-online 

Individual Stories: https://fipa.bc.ca/tag/2026-season-episode-05 

FIPA Bill C-4: 

• Bill C-4 Dashboard: https://fipa.bc.ca/fipa-bill-c-4-part-4-dashboard/  

• Bill C-4 Backgrounder: https://fipa.bc.ca/bill-c-4-background/ 

• Send a message to members of parliament: https://fipa.bc.ca/c-4-email-to-mps/ 

• Send a message to Senators: https://fipa.bc.ca/c-4-email-to-senators/ 

• Bill C-4 Resources: https://fipa.bc.ca/bill-c-4-resources/ 

• Donate to Help Us Reach More Canadians: https://fipa.bc.ca/pr/donate-c4/ 

Support these efforts by subscribing or donating. 

Send comments to FIPAOnline@fipa.bc.ca 

Our Contributors: 

Writing: Shaun Fisk | Production: Patrick Farnsworth | Music: Breakmaster Cylinder  

Access and Privacy Online: https://fipa.bc.ca/research-resources/podcasts/access-and-privacy-online/  

News stories through the Canadian Press and Feedly. 

Available through: PodBean, Apple iTunes,  YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM. ListenNotes,  Podchaser, Boomplay

This is your Access and Privacy News Summary for Saturday, January 24th. 

This week, we’re tracking a sharp escalation in surveillance and enforcement powers—from a B.C. municipality openly challenging a privacy watchdog’s authority to U.S. immigration officers asserting the right to enter homes without a judge’s warrant. 

We’re also looking at how access-to-information requests continue to expose gaps in oversight—whether that’s contaminated land in Ontario, the limits of Canada’s whistleblower protections, or the growing pressure on public transparency as AI, trade, and national security collide. 

And internationally, we’ll examine how internet shutdowns and connected-car technologies are reshaping privacy and access to information far beyond Canada’s borders. 

Show Notes: https://fipa.bc.ca/nm/20260124-access-and-privacy-online 

Individual Stories: https://fipa.bc.ca/tag/2026-season-episode-04 

FIPA Bill C-4 

• UPDATED Call to Action: https://fipa.bc.ca/bill-c-4-2025/ 

• FIPA Bill C-4 Part 4 Dashboard: https://fipa.bc.ca/fipa-bill-c-4-part-4-dashboard/ 

• Bill C-4 Part 4 line-by-line and brief: https://fipa.bc.ca/bill-c-4-part-4-line-by-line-and-brief/ 

Support these efforts by subscribing or donating. 

Send comments to FIPAOnline@fipa.bc.ca 

Our Contributors: 

Writing: Shaun Fisk | Production: Patrick Farnsworth | Music: Breakmaster Cylinder  

Access and Privacy Online: https://fipa.bc.ca/research-resources/podcasts/access-and-privacy-online/  

News stories through the Canadian Press and Feedly. 

Available through: PodBean, Apple iTunes,  YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM. ListenNotes,  Podchaser, Boomplay 

This is your Access and Privacy News Summary for Saturday, January 17th. 

We’re starting the year with a heavy focus on access to information and what happens when transparency fails or is actively resisted. 

This week, access requests uncover troubling gaps in domestic-violence prosecutions in Nunavut, reveal why a Parks Canada boat ban blindsided communities in Manitoba, and expose how billions of public dollars tied to Brampton’s electric-bus plans remain almost entirely redacted. 

We’ll also look at growing privacy concerns—from Manitoba’s new digital ID wallet to failures in protecting tenants’ personal information—and whistleblower-driven stories involving police misconduct and university governance. 

Then, we turn south, where the Trump administration is again testing the limits of federal power—using funding threats, data demands, and political pressure in ways that raise serious privacy and democratic concerns. 

And finally, from CES, a cautionary look at how AI-powered consumer devices are collecting more personal data than ever—often with little oversight. 

Show Notes: https://fipa.bc.ca/nm/20260117-access-and-privacy-online

Individual Stories: https://fipa.bc.ca/tag/2026-season-episode-03  

FIPA Bill C-4:

• UPDATED Call to Action: https://fipa.bc.ca/bill-c-4-2025/
• FIPA Bill C-4 Part 4 Dashboard: https://fipa.bc.ca/fipa-bill-c-4-part-4-dashboard/
• Bill C-4 Part 4 line-by-line and brief: https://fipa.bc.ca/bill-c-4-part-4-line-by-line-and-brief/

Support these efforts by subscribing or donating. 

Send comments to FIPAOnline@fipa.bc.ca 

Our Contributors: 

Writing: Shaun Fisk | Production: Patrick Farnsworth | Music: Breakmaster Cylinder  

Access and Privacy Online: https://fipa.bc.ca/research-resources/podcasts/access-and-privacy-online/  

News stories through the Canadian Press and Feedly. 

Available through: PodBean, Apple iTunes,  YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM. ListenNotes,  Podchaser, Boomplay 

This is your Access and Privacy News Summary for Thursday, January 15th—our first  News Summary of 2026. 

After the holiday break, there’s a lot to catch up on. Across Canada and internationally, familiar themes re-emerge: data breaches with unresolved accountability, governments struggling to balance security, privacy, and transparency, and growing pressure to define how artificial intelligence is governed—or not governed—in practice. 

We’ll start in Nova Scotia, where the fallout from a major data breach is colliding with electricity rate hikes and renewed debate over access-to-information law. Then we’ll move through Canadian privacy and access stories shaped by FOI requests before turning to international developments involving Big Tech, AI misuse, and whistleblower protections. 

Show Notes: https://fipa.bc.ca/nm/20260115-access-and-privacy-online 

Individual Stories: https://fipa.bc.ca/tag/2026-season-episode-02  

FIPA Bill C-4 

• UPDATED Call to Action: https://fipa.bc.ca/bill-c-4-2025/ 

• FIPA Bill C-4 Part 4 Dashboard: https://fipa.bc.ca/fipa-bill-c-4-part-4-dashboard/ 

• Bill C-4 Part 4 line-by-line and brief: https://fipa.bc.ca/bill-c-4-part-4-line-by-line-and-brief/ 

Support these efforts by subscribing or donating. 

Send comments to FIPAOnline@fipa.bc.ca 

Our Contributors: 

Writing: Shaun Fisk | Production: Patrick Farnsworth | Music: Breakmaster Cylinder  

Access and Privacy Online: https://fipa.bc.ca/research-resources/podcasts/access-and-privacy-online/  

News stories through the Canadian Press and Feedly. 

Available through: PodBean, Apple iTunes,  YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM. ListenNotes,  Podchaser, Boomplay 

In this commentary, we have a special end-of-year commentary among FIPA contributors.  

Tune in to hear our discussion between FIPA President Mike Larsen and Executive Director Jason Woywada as we discuss the year that was and the year ahead.  

Support these efforts by subscribing or donating. 

Send comments to FIPAOnline@fipa.bc.ca 

Access and Privacy Commentary: https://fipa.bc.ca/research-resources/podcasts/access-and-privacy-commentary/  

Access and Privacy Online: https://fipa.bc.ca/research-resources/podcasts/access-and-privacy-online/ 

News stories through the Canadian Press and Feedly. 

Available through: PodBean, Apple iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM 

In this commentary, we have a special end-of-year commentary among FIPA contributors.  

Tune in to hear our discussion between producer Patrick Farnsworth, FIPA researcher Spencer Izen, and Executive Director Jason Woywada as they discuss Spencer’s work and research with the preliminary report from his access assessments. 

• 2025 Access Assessment Preliminary Report: https://fipa.bc.ca/aa/preliminary-report-2025/  

• Access Regimes: Social Studies of Recordkeeping, Bureaucracy, and Secrecy under Freedom of Information Law: https://osf.io/n2xmu/overview  

• BC Broader Public Sector Requests: https://fipa.bc.ca/research-resources/2024-bc-broader-public-sector-requests/  

• BC Core Government Requests: https://fipa.bc.ca/research-resources/2024-bc-core-government-requests/  

• Access Assessment Release Packages: https://fipa.bc.ca/aa/2025-release-packages/  

Reporting  

• What’s the ‘black box’ of B.C.’s freedom of information systems? Watchdog study shining light on little-understood process: https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/whats-the-black-box-of-bcs-freedom-of-information-systems-watchdog-study-shining-light-on-little-understood-process/ 

Support these efforts by subscribing or donating. 

Send comments to FIPAOnline@fipa.bc.ca 

Access and Privacy Commentary: https://fipa.bc.ca/research-resources/podcasts/access-and-privacy-commentary/  

Access and Privacy Online: https://fipa.bc.ca/research-resources/podcasts/access-and-privacy-online/ 

News stories through the Canadian Press and Feedly. 

Available through: PodBean, Apple iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM 

In this commentary, we have a special end-of-year commentary among FIPA contributors.  

Tune in to hear our discussion with FIPA researcher Ryan Rutley, who was one of our University of Victoria Law Co-op Students at FIPA this year. We discuss his experience and work around Bill C-4 Submissions, Leading and Trailing Language with FoIPPA Exemption Clauses, and the CBA Privacy and Access Law Conference. 

• 2025 Interprovincial Clause Analysis—frivolous vexatious: https://fipa.bc.ca/rr/clause-analysis-frivolous-vexatious
• Leading Language 2024: https://fipa.bc.ca/leading-language-2024/  
• 2024 Foreign Interference Commission: https://fipa.bc.ca/2024-foreign-interference-commission/ 
• Support these efforts by subscribing or donating. 

Send comments to FIPAOnline@fipa.bc.ca 

Access and Privacy Commentary: https://fipa.bc.ca/research-resources/podcasts/access-and-privacy-commentary/  

Access and Privacy Online: https://fipa.bc.ca/research-resources/podcasts/access-and-privacy-online/ 

News stories through the Canadian Press and Feedly. 

Available through: PodBean, Apple iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM