The Centre for Law, Technology and Society is delighted to announce that Dr. Florian Martin-Bariteau has been appointed by the Council of Canadian Academies to an Expert Panel on Public Safety in the Digital Age that will examine the threats to public safety related to the use of digital technologies and how to address them while respecting human rights and privacy.
Information and communications technologies have profoundly changed almost every aspect of life and business in the last two decades. While the digital revolution has brought about many positive changes, it has also created opportunities for criminal organizations and malicious actors to target individuals, businesses, and systems. Ultimately, serious crime facilitated by technology and harmful online activities poses a threat to the safety and well-being of people in Canada and beyond.
Damaging or criminal online activities can be difficult to measure and often go unreported. Law enforcement agencies and other organizations working to address issues such as the sexual exploitation of children, human trafficking, and violent extremism must constantly adapt their tools and methods to try and prevent and respond to crimes committed online. A better understanding of the impacts of these technological advances on public safety and the challenges they create could help to inform approaches to protecting public safety in Canada.
Public Safety Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage, Communication Security Establishment, Global Affairs Canada, Innovation, Sciences and Economic Development Canada, Justice Canada, Privy Council Office, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, asked the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) to examine the impact of technological advances on public safety and promising practices that could help to address those threats while respecting human rights and privacy.
To this end, CCA assembled a multidisciplinary expert panel to examine and interpret the evidence to offer a better understanding of the impacts of these technological advances on public safety and the challenges they create that could help to inform approaches to protecting public safety in Canada.
The new CCA Expert Panel on Public Safety in the Digital Age will include Dr. Florian Martin-Bariteau, the University Research Chair in Technology and Society and an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Ottawa, where he leads the Centre for Law, Technology and Society as well as the AI + Society Initiative. Pursuing a research program on information security, civil liberties and digital literacy, Dr. Martin-Bariteau notably serves on the Board of Directors of SERENE-RISC, Canada’s smart cybersecurity network of the National Centres of Excellence, and as co-investigator and a theme lead of the Human-Centric Cybersecurity SSHRC Partnership.
Congratulations to Dr. Martin-Bariteau!