Before joining the University of Ottawa as Executive Director of the newly formed Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) in 2003, Pippa Lawson was senior counsel at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), where she practiced consumer advocacy and administrative law for twelve years. PIAC is an Ottawa-based organization that represents the interests of under-represented individuals and groups on issues of broad public concern. Pippa has a Master's degree from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (1986) and a Law degree from Queen's University (1989). At PIAC, Pippa led consumer interventions in all major telecommunications proceedings before the Canadian regulator since 1991. She also acted for consumer groups in regulatory matters before the Ontario Energy Board, and represented various public interest parties before the Federal and Supreme Courts of Canada on matters ranging from the abandonment of railway lines to voting rights. At CIPPIC, Pippa has focused on issues involving new technologies and copyright, privacy and consumer protection law. Her areas of expertise are telecommunications regulation, privacy and consumer protection in electronic commerce.

As a representative of the consumer interest on privacy issues before policy and law-making bodies, Pippa is highly qualified to identify and assess privacy issues arising from new technologies, laws and business practices.

  

.:presentations:.

 

"Consumer Information as Commodity" presented to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada's Lunch Lecture Series, Ottawa, November 29th, 2006.

 

"Consumer Health Information as Commodity" presented at the Electronic Health Information and Privacy Conference, Ottawa, November 13, 2006.

 

"Tackling ID Theft: Legal and Policy Approaches" presented at the 7th Annual Privacy and Security Workshop Your Identity Please: Identity Theft and Identity Management in the 21st Century, Toronto, November 3, 2006. 

 

"Privacy and Openness: Achieving the Right Balance" presented to the Second National Forum on New Directions in Adminisrative Law and Practice, Toronto, Oct.4-5, 2006.

 

 "Consumer Information as Commodity: A Glimpse into the Canadian Data Brokerage Industry and an Assessment of Retailer Compliance with Data Protection Laws" presented to the Surveillance Project in Kingston on April 27, 2006.

 

"Finding the Balance between Privacy and Security" presented at the Annual Conference of the Canadian Access and Privacy Association, November 22, 2005.

 

"Techniques of Consumer Surveillance and Approaches to their regulation in Canada and the USA," presented at the tenth annual International Consumer Law Conference http://www.iacl.ca in Lima, Peru, May 4-6, 2005.

 

 "Privacy Advocacy In An Age Of Surveillance: The CIPPIC Approach," presented at The Concealed I: Anonymity, Identity and the Prospect of Privacy, University of Ottawa, March 5, 2005.