Description

From identifying privacy rights to accessing justice, this panel will explore the use of forensic investigative genetic genealogy (FIGG)*** and some of the pressing legal and policy issues that come with it.

Stephen McCammon, Legal Counsel at the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC), is part of the team that helped draft the IPC’s Guardrails for Police Use of Investigative Genetic Genealogy in Ontario (FIGG guardrails). The IPC developed the guardrails to help police mitigate privacy-related risks as their use of FIGG is not subject to clear binding rules (e.g., legislation). Stephen will touch on what FIGG is and how it is being used to expand and accelerate the search for persons of interest in various criminal cases, before discussing why the IPC developed the guardrails and what some of the key law and policy issues associated with FIGG are (e.g., as revealed in Canadian caselaw).

Bhavan Sodhi, Chief Program Officer at the Innocence Project, will explore the evidentiary and ethical complexities of FIGG and how it has intersected with wrongful conviction investigations – raising critical questions about the preservation of evidence, the threshold required to undo wrongful convictions and access to post-conviction testing. With an extensive background in post-conviction work both in the US and Canada, Bhavan will also discuss cross-border efforts to regulate and legislate the use of FIGG.

***FIGG is an investigative technique that is being used to expand and accelerate the search for persons of interest (POI) in various criminal investigations. It is also being used to identify unidentified human remains. In the POI context, FIGG combines new sophisticated forms of DNA analysis (typically single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) sequencing), U.S.-based private sector SNP-based DNA databases, internet based/genealogical research, and the use of the undercover DNA surveillance tactic (also known as the “discard” DNA tactic).

This panel is brought to you by the Canadian Society of Forensic Science, with speakers from Innocence Canada and the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario.

Biographies:

Stephen McCammon

Stephen McCammon is Legal Counsel at the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario where he supports Commissioner Kosseim and her efforts to help ensure that privacy, transparency and accountability matters are identified, understand, and addressed. Much of this work arises at the intersection between law enforcement functions and fundamental rights and involves collaborating with policing, human rights, and civic leaders in an effort to help ensure that privacy, transparency and accountability are addressed when it comes to:

• police practices relating to, for example, carding and street checks, CPIC mental health disclosures, police record checks,
• information sharing across sectors to improve outcomes and reduce harms, in relation to, for example, intimate partner violence, sexual violence investigations, mobile crisis response teams, police-hospital Mental Health Act transitions, situation tables, gang exit strategies, and the provision of victim services,
• information sharing and reporting under the Community Safety and Policing Act, information sharing and analysis under the Coroners Act, race-based data collection under the Anti-Racism Act and the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (including in relation to the police use of force), and demand, inspection, search, and publication powers under anti-human trafficking and missing persons legislation, and
• the police use of technologies such as automatic licence plate recognition, body-worn cameras,  facial recognition mugshot database systems, facial recognition in general, video surveillance, and investigative genetic genealogical

Stephen’s work for the Commissioner has also included serving as intervener counsel in cases such as Cash Converters Canada Inc. v. Oshawa (City), Tadros v. Peel (Police Service), Ontario (Public Safety and Security) v. Criminal Lawyers’ Association, A.B. v. Bragg, R. v. Yumnu, Emms, and Davey, Wakeling v. United States of America, R. v. Jarvis, and Ontario (Attorney General) v. Bogaerts. Prior to arriving at the Commissioner’s Office in 2004, Stephen spent nearly 10 years as counsel at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. One of the issues that keeps him up at night is the lack of enforceable privacy, transparency and accountability guardrails in relation to AI augmented sorting and surveillance systems and data governance.

Bhavan K. Sodhi

Bhavan K. Sodhi is the chief program officer at the Innocence Project. In this capacity, she is responsible for the oversight, management, and supervision of all six programmatic departments: client intake and evaluation, post-conviction litigation, data science & research, strategic litigation, social work, and public policy reform.

Prior to this role, she served as the IP’s director of intake & case evaluation. Bhavan comes to the IP with deep experience in innocence work, having served as the legal director at Innocence Canada, where she is now a member of its case review committee and executive board. She was also the executive director of the Osgoode Innocence Project in Toronto and an Adjunct Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, teaching wrongful conviction and forensic science. Bhavan also co-founded and instructed the Wrongful Conviction Clinic at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law for many years.

Bhavan has served as a board member of the international Innocence Network and has experience working as both a prosecutor and defense attorney in Toronto. Bhavan has written extensively about criminal justice and wrongful convictions and regularly presents on these topics. She is deeply passionate about and committed to addressing injustice and the systems that foster it.