Commissioner’s Blog

Last fall, my office issued a Transparency Challenge. We called on Ontario’s public institutions to share their best and brightest projects or programs that demonstrate a real commitment to government transparency and show how open data can have tangible benefits for the day to day lives of Ont...

On the occasion of Data Privacy Day 2023, our office hosted an event on the theme of Building Trust in Digital Health Care. Nearly three years of pandemic conditions, overburdened emergency rooms, sparse access to primary care, and an exhausted healthcare workforce have worn the country thin. Ont...

Every January 1, my family and I take turns going around the dinner table revealing our new year’s resolutions. Typically, these are well-intended aspirations to try and improve ourselves and the world around us in some small way. We write them out on a piece of paper and discuss how we will ho...

Covering my fridge at home are various photos of the kids when they were little, endless lists of things to do, upcoming appointments, random recipes, and important phone numbers. You’ll also find inspiring quotes I’ve cut and pasted over the years as reminders of the most important things in...

After careful deliberation, the IPC recently decided to launch its own Instagram account as a new way of connecting with Ontario’s children and youth to teach them about privacy risks and how to protect themselves online. Our creative comms team has already started posting quick tips about priv...

It takes years to build a reputation people can trust and seconds for a cyberattack to bring it all crashing down. Once criminals gain access to an organization’s systems and the information stored within, the door is open to identity theft, economic loss, and devastating reputational damage. G...

For Canadians, Right to Know Week is a time to reflect on our access rights and the importance of open, transparent government. This week, the IPC will spread the word about the public’s right to know by sharing resources about how individuals can exercise their access rights and how public ins...

Guest blog by Teresa Scassa It is no secret that Ontario faces many challenges when it comes to privacy and data governance today. Some of these relate to ongoing efforts to ensure that our personal data and personal health information are properly stewarded in the public and healthcare sectors, ...

If you’ve read the IPC’s 2021 Annual Report, you’ll know that my office has set its sights on a vision to enhance Ontarians’ trust that their access and privacy rights will be respected. This vision rests on three key pillars: actively advancing Ontarians’ rights in key strategic areas...

Certain events in life are of such seismic proportion that they remind us of our fragility not only as human beings, but as an entire human species. I first got that feeling in the chaotic aftermath of 9/11 when I feared possible nuclear retaliation might put an end to us all. I felt it again whe...