Advisory Council on Ethics and Modernization of Microdata Access

Co-chair, Global Privacy and Cybersecurity Group, Dentons Canada LLP

Chantal Bernier leads the Canadian Privacy and Cybersecurity practice at Dentons Canada LLP which she joined October 2014. Previously she guided the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) as Interim Privacy Commissioner and as Assistant Commissioner, Ms. Bernier has spearheaded both national and international privacy investigations in the public and private sectors, privacy audits, privacy impact assessment reviews as well as technological analyses, privacy policy development, and research.

Ms. Bernier has negotiated international conventions for Canada as part of the International and Constitutional Law Section of the Department of Justice. In previous senior and executive positions for the Government of Canada, she brings substantial governmental experience as Assistant Deputy Minister responsible for Socio-Economic Development at Aboriginal and Northern Affairs Canada, as Assistant Deputy Minister responsible for Community Safety and Partnerships at Public Safety Canada, and as Director of Operations for the Machinery of Government Secretariat of the Privy Council Office.

In 2012, she received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in recognition for her contribution and achievements.

Ms Bernier holds a Bachelor of Civil Law from the University of Sherbrooke and a Masters in Public International Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Researcher and Adjunct Professor

Len Garis is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice & Associate to the Centre for Social Research at the University of the Fraser Valley, a member of the Affiliated Research Faculty at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, and a faculty member of the Institute of Canadian Urban Research Studies at Simon Fraser University. Recently was appointed as an Associate Research Scientist Emeritus at the BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit. He has also been a member of the FIREfighting in Canada editorial advisory board since 2005. As Fire Chief (Ret) for the City of Surrey, British Columbia, his focus was on addressing public safety challenges through evidence-based decision making and innovation.

Mr. Garis regularly initiates scientific research and data collection with the objective of developing alternative methods to address public safety challenges and improve service delivery. He believes strongly that having a long-range vision, planning and innovation can reduce costs, improve efficiency and ultimately enhance services and public safety.

Several of these initiatives have garnered awards and recognition for the City of Surrey in the past decade, including the Union of B.C. Municipalities Community Excellence Awards (for four different programs), a Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia Award for Public Safety, recognition from the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General and in 2013 a Community Health and Safety Award from the International City / County Management Association (ICMA) and in 2016 a Professional Development Award from the Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators (CAMA) and an Award for Collaborative Excellence from the Canadian Collaborating Centre Injury Prevention (CCCIP). In 2013 Chief Garis was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his contributions to Canadians.

Strategic Advisor, Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange

Robert Gordon is a Strategic Advisor at the Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange (CCTX), Canada's only private sector cyber threat collaboration forum and source of cyber threat intelligence for organizations from all sectors and sizes. Prior to joining the CCTX, Bob held several senior leadership roles in the private and public sectors, including as a Director of Global Cyber Security at CGI (Conseillers en gestion et informatique CGI Inc.).

Previously, Mr. Gordon has enjoyed a long and successful career in the Government of Canada. In addition to being known as the architect of Canada's first Cyber Security Strategy, for which he received the Deputy Minister's Achievement Award, Mr. Gordon has applied his skills and expertise to several of Canada's security, intelligence and law enforcement organizations, such as: Public Safety Canada, the Communications Security Establishment, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Bob has held senior executive positions, including at the Senior Assistant Deputy Minister level. He has provided operational leadership in investigating and analyzing the full range of threats to Canada's security, which included leading the CSIS Counter Terrorism program. Bob is also a member of the Board of Directors for Quantum Safe Canada.

Associate Professor

David Robichaud is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Ottawa, specialized in economic and social ethics and political philosophy. He has written and edited a number of books on political philosophy as well as many journal articles. Until recently, he was Director of Undergraduate Studies and co-editor of the journal Ethics and Economics. Since 2014, he has been an associate member of the Hoover Chair of Economic and Social Ethics Statistics in Belgium, as well as a member of the Groupe de recherche interuniversitaire sur la normativité and of several evaluation committees of the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC) for research funding. He is the co-author of the essay La juste part : Repenser les inégalités, la richesse et la fabrication des grille-pains, and of several scientific articles on socioeconomic justice, linguistic justice and the nature of trust. Finally, he has been a member of the radio show Les Malins on ICI Radio-Canada Première since 2016, where he simplifies philosophy for listeners.

Cyber Security Chair, University of New Brunswick

Dr. Ghorbani has held various academic positions for the past 41 years. Currently, he is a Professor of Computer Science, Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity, and founding director of the Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity he established in 2017. In addition, he served as the Dean of the Faculty of Computer Science at the University of New Brunswick from 2008 to 2017. He has spent over 25 years of his 41-year academic career conducting fundamental and applied research in machine learning, cybersecurity, and Critical Infrastructure Protection.

Dr. Ghorbani is the co-inventor on four awarded and one filed patent in Cybersecurity and Web Intelligence and has published over three hundred peer-reviewed articles during his career. He has supervised over 250 research associates, postdoctoral fellows, and students. His book, "Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems: Concepts and Techniques," was published by Springer in October 2010. Dr. Ghorbani developed several technologies adopted by high-tech companies and co-founded three start-ups, Sentrant Security, EyesOver Technologies, and Cydarien Security, in 2013, 2015, and 2019. Dr. Ghorbani's role in the success of Q1 Labs Inc. and its QRadar technology has been featured in the book Unicorn in the Woods by Cordon Pitts (2020).

Dr. Ghorbani co-founded the UNB-NRC Cybersecurity Collaboration Consortium and the National Cybersecurity Consortium (NCC) in 2019 and 2020, respectively. In addition, he co-founded the Privacy, Security, Trust (PST) Network in Canada and its annual international conference. Dr. Ghorbani served as the co-Editor-in-Chief of "Computational Intelligence: An International Journal" from 2007 to 2017. He is a past vice-president of the Canadian Association of Computer Science (CACS/AIC), served as a CIPS Professional Standards Advisory Council (PSAC) member, and was on NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council) Committee on Safety and Security. Currently, he is a member of Statistics Canada's Advisory Council on Ethics and Modernization of Microdata Access and an associate member of the Digital Technology Supercluster.

Dr. Ghorbani is the recipient of the 2017 Startup Canada Senior Entrepreneur Award and Canadian Immigrant Magazine's RBC top 25 Canadian immigrants of 2019. In addition, he was named one of the 40 inspiring Canadians in the book ‘Forty Brilliant Canadians and their Vision for the Nation’ by Mark Bulgutch (2022).

Canada Research Chair in Data Ethics, McGill University

Eran Tal is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at McGill University and Canada Research Chair in Data Ethics. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Toronto and an M.A. in history and philosophy of science from Tel Aviv University.

His research interests include the ethical dimensions of data collection, data analysis and data use in science, and the ethical and social implications of using big data and machine learning algorithms.

Dr. Tal is an expert in the philosophy of measurement, a field of philosophy of science that deals with concepts and problems related to the design, operation and interpretation of measurement procedures. His recent work includes the development of an innovative approach to dealing with problems of data ethics, centered around the idea of responsible measurement. He is currently pursuing research on a variety of themes, including algorithmic bias and fairness, the ethics of patient-reported health outcome measurement, and the governance of youth mental health data. 

Vice President, Chief Privacy and Data Ethics Officer, Sun Life

Suzanne Morin is Vice President, Chief Privacy and Data Ethics Officer at Sun Life, a Canadian-based financial services organization. Ms. Morin is responsible for overall privacy leadership at Sun Life and its subsidiaries worldwide. Her mandate includes the company’s Code of Conduct program and evolving standards for the ethical use of data. Ms. Morin’s prior roles include leading the legal team in Quebec and compliance for IT.

Before joining Sun Life in 2015, she spent more than 20 years working in the communications industry, for businesses such as Bell Canada and BlackBerry.

Ms. Morin is actively involved with many organizations including the Canadian Bar Association’s National Privacy and Access Law Section, CANON – the Canadian Anonymization Network, the Information Accountability Foundation, and the Board of MediaSmarts, a leader in media and digital literacy. Ms. Morin also served as an appointed member of the Board of the Standards Council of Canada for over a decade.

Ms. Morin holds a Bachelor of Arts in Modern Languages and Literature and a Bachelor of Common Law from the University of Ottawa. She is a member of the Law Society of Ontario.