The document summarizes the IdentityNORTH Annual Summit 2020, which was held virtually over two days in June 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the key highlights from the summit included: - The summit had over 500 attendees from across sectors and levels of seniority, with a focus on digital identity, privacy, and data protection. - Speakers discussed how the pandemic highlighted the importance of digital identity and access management solutions to enable industries and experiences to move online. - Both the public and private sectors agreed that Canadian-wide digital identity standards could improve government service delivery and the citizen experience. - Presenters emphasized the need for regulations and policies to evolve with technology to better protect Canadians and maintain trust

1. IdentityNORTH
Annual Summit 2020
Summit Summary
June 17 & 18, 2020
Sponsored by:

2. 2
t never ceases to amaze me: the energy of the
IdentityNORTH community when we gather
together! I will admit that I was worried as
we shifted to move online. Of course, I had
technical concerns: would the internet let us down?
Would the software? But more importantly, who
could say whether a virtual experience could hold a
candle to the live experience we are used to?
But the community stepped up. You all rallied to make
this experience as good as it could possibly be and
we leveraged the advantages of being virtual. Three
times as much content, twice as many attendees and
potential connections, and launching a Professional
Development Certification… all delivered with tickets
that were a quarter of the price.
I think something big is happening. I sense a renewed
urgency at this point in time to fix the broken tech
and social systems we’re dealing with on a daily basis.
And if not now, when will we get another chance?
The conversations and expertise showcased over
two days at the 2020 IdentityNORTH Annual
Summit offered optimism and the chance to forge
new alliances to navigate the challenging historical
events we are living through and shape the world
that will emerge in the decade ahead.
Digital identity, a new digital economy, and privacy
and data protection aren’t a panacea. But as we are
moving more and more of the analogue world online, it
feels essential that we take a stand now and refuse to
migrate the status quo. We must not bring the failures
of today’s society into the world of online transactions.
IdentityNORTH has added a fourth element to our
mandate: Drive Action Now. We must change the
way we interact in the online world right now. We
must focus on building new trust.
For trust to flourish, we must continue building an
open ecosystem that establishes standards, and
models transparently and collaboratively, as we’ve
done with the PCTF thus far. Aran Hamilton,
Chair, IdentityNORTH
We must resist calls for interventionist top-down
regulation and stay the course.
Further, our new systems must be inclusive,
representative, and supportive of Canadians’ needs.
Leading up to the Summit we heard from some
Canadians that they were afraid of digital identity,
and they questioned the motivations and methods of
various organizations - both public and private. Rather
than simply dismissing these voices as fringe, we need to
recognize that not everyone understands or supports a
shift towards a more digital world. To be truly successful
in creating an inclusive digital ID ecosystem we all need
everyone to feel confidence in digital transactions and
how the systems that run them will be governed. Delay
and inaction hold their own consequences.
Reflecting on the two days of discussion and our
shared purpose to progress digital identity in Canada,
I see we have a lot of work ahead. With many focus
areas and levers for change, aligning our goals and
values will be key to ensuring our collective success.
I embrace the Maori concept shared by Dr. Tahu
Kukutai, Professor at University of Waikato and Kaye
Maree Dunn: Identity as Taonga (something prized,
applied to anything considered of value, including
socially or culturally valuable objects or resources)
and Andrew Weaver, Executive Director of Digital
Identity New Zealand who shared the concept of
Manaakitanga (the process of showing respect,
generosity, and care for others).
I am confident that we have the ability to create a
better future for Canada and the world. Building
transformative, sustainable technology and solutions
will raise the bar for service delivery, privacy,
accessibility, user experience, equity, and impact.
This is a time for change and our industry can make
a difference - please share this report to support the
conversations you’re having with your teams, friends,
and community leaders!
Letter from the Chair
I

3. 3
ear IdentityNORTH attendees,
This year’s IdentityNORTH Annual
Summit 2020 has been a unique
experience as the conference took on a completely
virtual format to adapt to the reality of the
worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.
I was fortunate to attend the conference in person
last June and was looking forward to meeting up
again this year. The shift to a virtual conference
allowed us to stay connected and keep the
organization’s tradition of information sharing alive.
I want to recognize the IdentityNORTH team for its
resourcefulness, hard work, and many hours invested
in transforming the Annual Summit into a fully digital
experience. The quality and delivery of content, as
well as the opportunities for personal interaction
were outstanding. As you will find in this report, the
range of topics and expertise shared was impressive.
At your fingertips is information about how identity
is transforming all industries as well as government
agencies and best practices for creating digital
experiences tailored for consumers, employees and
citizens to address today’s realities.
As we participated from our homes across Canada
and the world, it became apparent that the
intersection between digital transformation and
identity continues to serve as the industry’s driving
force. The last few months we have witnessed the
important role identity plays in digital transformation
as millions of people have moved their lives online.
From obtaining government or healthcare services,
to online schooling, grocery shopping and banking,
each one of us likely has a “pandemic digital
experience” story (or two) to tell. We all have a much
clearer sense of where the organizations we trust
and rely upon stand in their digital transformation
journeys. In many cases, we have been pleasantly
Arthur Sambar
ForgeRock
Regional Vice President, Canada
surprised and delighted. In others, we see gaps and
opportunities.
This year’s Summit also reaffirmed IdentityNORTH’s
commitment to serving as a strong voice within
the digital identity industry and a champion
of innovation, frameworks, and real-life
implementations, across both the public and private
sectors. Together, our community of technologists,
policy makers, and industry leaders are well-
positioned to lead the next era of post-COVID-19
digital transformation for Canada, as well as
continuing to serve as a reference point for digital
identity best practices within the global community.
Finally, as a long-standing supporter and contributor
to IdentityNORTH, ForgeRock values the
opportunity to participate in this year’s Summit.
Now more than ever we believe our vision to help
people safely and simply access the connected world
is essential and we welcome ongoing collaboration
with each of you to achieve that endeavor. We hope
this report serves as a valuable resource and one
you will refer back to often. We look forward to
continuing the dialogue with you directly and via the
IdentityNORTH community.
Sincerely,
A Message From ForgeRock
D

4. 4
Who Was There
WIDE VARIETY OF ATTENDEE SENIORITY:REPRESENTATION ACROSS SECTORS:
COVERED IN NATIONAL MEDIA
Financial Post
June 16
IT World Canada
June 18
IT World Canada
June 19
Biometric update
June 20
Read more about the summit:
Public
Sector
Private
Sector
Other
25%
66%
9%
C Suite, Ministers,
Senators and Members
of Parliament
EVP, SVP and VP
Director
Manager
Other (Academic,
Media, Research)11%
29%
24%
10%
26%
Attendees
500+
of all sessions featured women, indigenous
speakers, or people of colour.
46%
Sessions viewed per
attendee, on average
25 Sessions
80
Speakers
76

5. 5
Canada’s digital identity ecosystem is leading globally and
we have the opportunity to double down on our strengths.
Canada has a model that works. It may not be the fastest to get
off the ground or largest, but the country’s public and private
sector cooperation is proving to set a strong example to the
world. Sunil Abraham, Professor at ArtEZ University, pointed
out that Canada’s focus on building trust and collaboration may
be the key to adoption and long-term success.
High adoption rates and interoperability increase
resilience of socioeconomic systems in times of crisis.
We heard from leaders across industries, sectors, and countries
that the ability to shift online safely, securely, and quickly
made the difference between success and failure in facing
COVID-19. “The notion of a socioeconomic digital safety
net that’s strong, safe and secure, because you’re able to
give folks confidence and the tools, that’s going to be the next
phase where you’re going to see this interesting intersection
between high level policy and some good thought leadership,”
said Colin Wallis, Executive Director of Kantara Initiative Inc.
Identity and Access Management solutions (IAM) have
the potential to transform many industries and improve
consumer experiences.
The global pandemic has focused attention on use cases
that are technologically possible, but hindered by the need
for stronger identity management and access management
systems. “The only perimeter you have is identity, there’s no
network perimeter,” Okta’s Ron Hassanwalia noted. As more
IAM technologies are implemented, it is important that theyare
also judged and tested for possible unintended consequences.
Digital health care opportunities can be unlocked with
tech - but demand identity and privacy.
It’s become clear that many types of healthcare are suitable to
be administered in a virtual setting.Amore unified and trusted
digital identity will play a big part in allowing remote care to
work well and be adopted by patients and caregivers. “Health
is the holy grail - people want to be able to manage their health
but we need enough security to make accessing health records
possible,” Greg Wolfond, CEO, SecureKey explained.
Privacy and data protection are among the core benefits
of digital identity.
Many sessions raised the concept of privacy as a
cornerstone for democracy. Other sessions discussed
new philosophical approaches to understanding ‘identity’
and suggested that we required effort to overcome old,
unregulated concepts of ‘consent’. “Identity, when done
right, becomes the great enabler,” said Jeremy Grant,
Managing Director at Venable. “Providing the foundations
for digital transactions and online experiences that are
These are the big themes and recurring concepts we encountered
over two days at the 2020 IdentityNORTH Annual Summit:
more secure, that are easier to use, and they can protect
privacy much better than the solutions we have today.”
Integration and representation of new perspectives are
critical to make sure new solutions really work, not just
for the few, and serve to close the digital divide.
Products designed by people with different lived
experiences will be better used, understood, and adopted by
people with different lived experiences noted Kaye Maree
Dunn, Co-Founder, Āhau. “The right to an identity is baked
into human rights legislation,” Colleen Boldon, Director,
Digital Lab and Digital ID Programs, Province of New
Brunswick, stated, “Without some connection to the digital
economy, people are going to be further disenfranchised.”
Supporting more diversity in the tech industry, in public
service, and in leadership across industries will yield more
innovation and better outcomes for everyone.
We need to interrogate our core concepts and reconsider
identity with new lenses for equity, new opportunities
and to expand the scope of our work.
Taking the discussion back to the foundations of digital
identity led to many interesting insights throughout the
Summit. By scrutinizing existing assumptions with Dr. Tahu
Kukutai, Professor at University of Waikato and reflecting
on the work in digital identity thus far with Kim Cameron,
Contributor and Advisor on Digital Identity, it became clear
that many of the truths guiding digital identity are subjective.
New ways to approach old challenges could be found
by drawing on Indigenous ways of knowing, languages,
and gendered and racialized perspectives that have been
historically shut out of economic activity and technical fields.
Regulations must evolve with the times.
Several UnConference sessions, supported by Auth0,
focused on policy challenges associated with credentials,
identity issuers, and industries like personal finance. It was
clear throughout the Annual Summit that Canada needs to
revisit its regulations around data, privacy, and technology
to better protect and serve Canadian citizens and
businesses. The Summit saw specific calls for policy reform
to broader acknowledgement that current Canadian privacy
regulation has no teeth, is unenforced and underutilized.
“We know digital ID is not an end by itself. It’s rather the
beginnings of new innovation and new value to be built
on top of it. Digital ID is an input into a meaningful value
exchange,” said Mark O’Connell, President and CEO,
Interac and 2020 Recipient of the Founder of Canada’s
Digital Economy Award. May this be a new beginning.
Identity for Everything: The Big Ideas

6. 6
OVID-19 put governments around the
world in the spotlight, as citizens turned
to the public service for advice, care, and
financial support. Online service deliveryC
Identity for Government:
Service Delivery
digital credentials within the US Government.
At the core of every initiative are two things: people and
collaboration. Maintaining focus on those key things as
our unique Canadian strengths will help us succeed.
“The digital transformation of government in my humble
opinion, is part of a social movement. That is to say, the
government does not choose to transform itself digitally
or not, because society is transforming itself digitally,
and the government is part of this movement,” said the
Honourable Éric Caire, Minister for Government Digital
Transformation, National Assembly of Québec.
Where there’s political will, there’s a way.
What government can do is drive privacy-respecting forms
of identification and more transparency and user control
will help ease concerns. What may help the most, however,
are stricter regulations. Governments need to be proactive
to maintain the trust of the people. Trust lost is a difficult
(or impossible) thing to regain. Canada’s public-private
cooperative approach thus far has been promising in
establishing a foundation of trust. Sunil Abraham, Professor
at ArtEZ University in the Netherlands praised Canadian
leadership from a global perspective in his session and
recent publication. Abraham commended the Canadian
earlywork to establish frameworks, open collaboration,
and gradual efforts toward building trust with citizens.
Still, there remains much work to be done. One call to
action we heard again and again was that the public
sector needs to improve regulations. Creating stricter
privacy laws with more easily and widely enforced
repercussions. Others highlighted the importance of
creating standards across Canada. “People often don’t
look at the standardization system in Canada as impactful
because we’re a very quiet tool that people don’t realize is
in use in everything that we do. Standardization impacts
all of our lives,” noted Anneke Olvera, Acting Director,
Programs and Operations, Strategy and Stakeholder
Engagement, Standards Council of Canada (SCC).
Those quiet tools can work for government. Adopting open
standards, expanding regulations, and updating restrictive,
outdated language in some old policies were identified by
many speakers and throughout UnConference sessions as
ways to help drive innovation and protect Canadians.
Where there’s political will, there’s a way.
capabilities varied, but public officials we heard from
agreed: digital identity and Canada-wide standards would
make the process simpler - for government departments
and the citizens accessing their services.
The Honourable Joyce Murray, Minister of Digital
Government, opened the conference with a call for change
and collaboration, saying, “It’s up to all of us to ensure no
Canadian is left behind. Required digital transformation can’t
be tackled by one department, team, or organization alone.”
Provinces and Territories made leaps and bounds in their
digital service delivery, making it clear that a digital future is
possible coast-to-coast - and it’s within reach today. “COVID
has fast-forwarded a need to get to a place where we are
validating and verifying individuals so that we can provide
them access to services that they traditionally would have
received in person or via phone,” Arlene Williams, Executive
Director, Province of Nova Scotia explained.
While the challenges are not in the rearview mirror just
yet, there is hope and optimism that this moment of
unprecedented, pervasive political will can be used to
drive better systems and achieve widespread adoption
of a Pan-Canadian Trust Framework. Peter Watkins,
Executive Director, Office of the CIO, Province of British
Columbia, shared, “It’s been a very, very good experience
for us to to learn from and it really reinforces the value of
having a good digital ID platform in place.”
Discussions surrounding the COVID-19 response and
future plans revealed how privacy concerns extend from
the private sector to the public sector. People have a
complex relationship with their data and privacy, impacted
by recent data breaches and histories with government
data collection. “Without addressing these policies for
digital identity and biometrics, the government is setting
itself up for a fall in terms of public trust,” said Lord Tim
Clement-Jones, Former Chair, House of Lords Select
Committee on Artificial Intelligence, Parliament of the UK.
Anil John warned against putting Government at the
centre of the solution. “It’s not a matter of throwing
technology or standards at a problem, we need to come
up with a cohesive approach that is not government-
centric,” the Technical Director, US Department of
Homeland Security, explained while sharing the value of
multi-platform interoperability with a use case of issuing
The Honourable Joyce Murray, Minister of Digital Government

7. 7
ost of the challenges we’re confronting
now, as businesses and as human beings, are
not technical, they’re social. The technology
and technical capabilities exist - but broader,
more complex challenges like trust and equity
are barriers to adoption, noted Andre Boysen, Chief Identity
Officer, SecureKey, and others throughout the Summit.
Leaving these challenges for the ‘tech giants’ to work out
is not an option - it only opens more risks to and drives
solutions, control, and benefits further from Canadians.
“I think a natural compromise is having the public sector
and the private sector keep each other accountable with
the citizenry as the ultimate jury,” Jesse Hirsh, Futurist,
Researcher, and Public Speaker, explained in his session
exploring the role of Facebook as a leading issuer of ID.
While digital transformation looks different in every
industry, for everyone, it is a moving goalpost and process
that is never complete. Whatever stage your industry is at,
speakers agreed that a user-centered approach is the mode
of the future. Ron Hassanwalia from Okta told attendees
that they hold the keys to transforming their organizations.
“Identity standards and technologies have to be the most
forward-looking, innovative group in an organization
because you will be responsible for this transformation.”
Whether it’s in product design and minimizing friction
through a better user experience, or creating self-
sovereign, user-managed identity and data profiles, the
user is at the center of the next generation of digital
solutions. Prioritizing accessibility, user control, and
transparency will pay off.
“There’s no wrong place to be on the
digital transformation path - except not
being on it at all,” noted Allan Foster, Chief
Evangelist, ForgeRock.
Privacy-first is also no longer just an option. With
weakened trust across systems, privacy is a necessary,
central tenet for every organization - not an afterthought
or a ‘nice-to-have.’ “I think if governance is done right, it’s
not just a rubber stamp, and it actually can be something
that is used to improve the security posture of your
organization,” Steve Giovannetti, CTO and Co-Founder,
Hub City Media, Inc. shared.
Privacy-by-design and security-by-design must be
critical business imperatives. Accountability in business
M
Identity for Business: Identity
and Access Management
is paramount, too. Experts predicted that future data
breaches are inevitable - and the scope and scale will
only get more extreme. As consumers’ relationships
with businesses change, accountability will be crucial to
maintain some semblance of trust and loyalty.
The use cases for identity and access management (IAM)
seem endless. We heard how new systems, built on different
technology stacks, are being used for tracking physical
assets, accrediting food, fraud prevention in estate planning,
securing physical locations, managing workforces, and
delivering remote services to clients. The benefits extend
beyond access control - and really get unlocked when you
look at the data, Chami Akmeemana, CEO, Convergence.tech
explained. “The data that we were collecting would create
insights for policy and intervention. It creates transparency
for buyers, creates accountability, and hopefully creates a
better market access for producers,” Akmeemana said.
As increasingly diverse and far-reaching use cases are
tested and implemented, there is a clear need for a strong
set of foundational standards and principles to oversee
potential and to enable new, more impactful innovations.
“The real power that we’re talking about
with Trust Over IP is nothing less audacious
than trying to add a “trust layer” to the
internet itself.”
Dave Nikolejsin, Chair of the Digital ID & Authentication
Council of Canada said in the TD Bank, Identity for Good
Session: Demo of Trust Over IP. “That is a big tall order
- but it becomes possible when you stop requiring that
kind of login in the middle of the system.”
Through those standards, interoperability is essential.
Digital identity is only useful if acceptance is ubiquitous.
Speaker after speaker raised interoperability as being critical
for Canada’s success. “They say that it takes a village to raise
a child. I believe that it takes the entire Canadian digital
identity ecosystem to allow a [digital ID] venture... like this
to succeed,” Jay Krushell, Co-Founder, TreeFort explained.
Cooperation strengthens competition and ensures all
solutions have a chance to prove themselves.
Chami Akmeemana, CEO, Convergence.tech

8. 8
Ideas like “collective consent” were introduced by Dr. Tahu
Kukutai, Professor at University of Waikato. Dr. Kukutai
explained how a more fulsome view of genealogy, inherent in
Māori traditions, changes how we gather, maintain and honour
consent. In addition, Dr. Kukutai raised that many of the
assumptions - about the democratizing impact of digitization
and the inherent neutrality of technology were just that:
assumptions that need to be unpacked and critically analyzed.
As a settler nation, Canadians must also reflect on the crucial
role of Indigenous Data Sovereignty in our digital future. Kaye
Maree Dunn, Co-Founder, Āhau, explained that Indigenous
Data Sovereignty is the inherent right of Indigenous peoples
over the collection, application, and ownership of Indigenous
data. This is any data, digitized or digitizable, that originates
from or is about Indigenous peoples.
ongstanding global, economic, and social
imbalances are being questioned. As the global
context shifts, and people around the world march
for what they believe in, the pivotal role of digital
identity is also coming under closer inspection.
We heard speakers question the concept and perception of
identity itself, asking the audience to expand their thinking
and look past immediate work or granular solutions toward
the bigger, wider impact they could have. Participants were
also invited to reflect on big, important questions like:
Identity for who? By who? To whose benefit?
Kim Cameron, Contributor and Advisor on Digital Identity,
kicked off the stream with a look at what we’ve done wrong
with digital identity so far. Cameron pulled the layers of
identity back - revealing that we’ve only scratched the surface
when it comes to digital identity reflecting the true texture and
depth of ‘selfness.’ Cameron suggested that a lack of context
or relations between data and solutions is a major failure in
current digital identity solutions. Thus far, the advances have
really only focused on reaching a basic level of ‘whoness’ (being
recognizable to a system, for a set of characteristics) with some
contextual ‘whatness’ (a capability, a diagnosis) when required.
L
Identity for Everyone:
Inclusion & Representation
“Indigenous peoples need to control Indigenous data,”
Robyn Rowe, Ph.D. Candidate in Rural and Northern Health,
Research Associate in Indigenous Health, & Sessional
Professor at Laurentian University, explained as she called
for updated regulations, including changes to the Access
to Information Act, Privacy Act, and Library Archive Act of
Canada to support Indigenous self-determination. Echoing
the importance of data sovereignty, Rowe shared the First
Nations Information Governance Centre (FNIGC) guidelines
for ownership, control, access, and possession - also known
as the OCAP™ Principles (ownership, control, access, and
possession). Organizations and individuals can use these
resources to ensure their operations and data policies align.
“It’s so important to understand when you build and deliver
something to market, it’s not only going to be used for the
purpose that you intended for, but it can be used for another
purpose,” Chanda Jackson, Canadian Co-Lead of Women
in Identity and Sr. Manager, IAM Planning at Royal Bank of
Canada (RBC) reminded participants. There’s a whole world
of untapped potential and possibilities out there, Jackson
noted - it’s time to open the door to more ways of thinking.
Decisive, intentional action is needed to combat structural
inequality. Focusing on hiring more Black, Indigenous, and
People of Colour (BIPOC) leaders, creating active and open
partnerships with different communities across Canada, and
elevating the role of women across organizations is a good
place to start. “Is digital access a right?” Colleen Boldon,
Director, Digital Lab and Digital ID Programs, Province of New
Brunswick posited, “I think some of the thought leadership is
that digital access is emerging as a right. So act accordingly.”
Together, we need to move from inclusion to integration and
from recognition to respect. Again and again, we heard that
‘inclusion’ is no longer enough to create systemic change.
Integration needs to happen at a deeper level to make a
difference and ensure people can not only enter new industries,
but influence and lead them. Different perspectives and bodies
of knowledge need not only to be recognized, they need to be
respected and reflected in the work we do to create a digital
identity and digital Canada that works for all Canadians.
“If we’re not careful, we can roll out technologies that
exacerbate existing inequalities,” David Bray, InAugural
Director, Atlantic Council - GeoTech Center and Commission
warned. As we look inward to contemplate what must change
and outward to expand our understanding, the face and
relevance of digital identity can become more encompassing.
“We need to see a change in strategy, change in approach,
and an openness to engage in genuine partnership,” Dr.
Kukutai advised.
Holistic Digital Identity requires both
new construction and a major renovation
Presentation by Kim Cameron, Contributor and Advisor on Digital Identity
Aggregate
SELFNESS WHONESS
WHATNESS
Must be made
compatibility
with Selfness
New construction Major renovation MVP for PDT
PRIVACY
Dr. Tahu Kukutai, Professor, University of Waikato

9. 9
ecord numbers of Canadians are meeting with
their health care providers online to stay safe
during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When you look at the demand for digital
health tools, upwards of 90 percent of
people want digital tools they can use to
manage their health more effectively,”
Michael Green, President and CEO, Canada
Health Infoway said, “One of the key elements
behind all of this is the concept of trust.”
Beyond enabling physical distancing, other benefits that
proponents of remote care have been advocating for are
coming true. Enhanced efficiency, more care options, and
a more hands-on experience for patients in managing
their health have been some of the positive early signals
from the adoption of virtual care, with teams at Maple
and Dialogue seeing impressive results in reduced wait
times and patient satisfaction.
Others expressed hope that remote care has the potential
to start a bigger movement toward preventative care. The
role of virtual care in creating a real change toward
preventative, patient-centered, and personalized care was
raised throughout the digital health stream. “Is there finally
a business model around prevention?” Adrian Schauer,
CEO, AlayaCare asked. “Will there finally be a shift of
mentality towards prevention? I hope the answer is yes.”
With more care options available to more people,
and transparency around health records and patient
management, remote options could be the push to a
wider culture change in Canadian health care.
While the possibilities are impressive, teams need to have
doctors and health professionals at the decision making table -
and acknowledge that certain types of care are better suited to
virtual. A one-size-fits-all solution won’t work, so remote care
needs to play to its strengths - like centering on the patient and
creating a more cohesive continuum of care. Christy Prada,
VP of Business Development at Maple explained, “[Virtual
care allows teams to start] leveraging different touchpoints to
enhance planning and coordination with care. Digital identity
helps with establishing a coordinated record and a way to
validate identity across different types of care.”
R
Identity for Health:
Digital Health
The collaborative integrated care project Niagara Health
Navigator demonstrated how private and public sectors
can come together to support patients. The project was
undertaken to create a patient-centered experience that
enhanced convenience and control while respecting
privacy. With Niagara Health leading the initiative, the
Province of Ontario acting as the issuer of foundational
ID, and technology partners SecureKey ensuring a high
enough level of security in-app and Identos providing
innovative access control technology.
Representatives from each organization were at
IdentityNORTH to share how the expanding initiative has
been a positive-sum win for all stakeholders. “There are
benefits for citizens, the Ministry of Health, health
authorities, and the ability to work across sectors to
support broader identity goals of the Province for digital
services and interoperability,” Joseph Mayer, Chief
Revenue Officer at Identos said, “Leveraging the Pan-
Canadian Trust Framework, now other innovators have a
clear path to access patients and provide services.”
More clarity and uniform regulations across Canada could
help ensure patients continue to receive the
most suitable, best quality care. Improvements will also
allow Canadians to take advantage of the accessibility and
flexibility of on-demand virtual care options. “It’s a complex
question of when data can enhance public safety and
security,” Anna Chif, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy and
Product Officer, Dialogue acknowledged. “In any case, it
must be aggregate, de-identified data. It’s also complex
parsing what is intellectual property - is the diagnosis IP? A
breach would be very harmful for digital health.”
To keep privacy a top priority and ensure care teams can
make the switch to digital in good faith, incentives need to
connect to outcomes. Modernizing incentive structures
may make adapting to change easier. Patients who rely on
remote care options need to be confident that care is held
to the same standards throughout the country.
Digital identity was recognized across the board as a key
enabler to driving adoption of and access to digital health care.
Digital identity can ensure that the strides made in remote
care delivery are not undermined by privacy issues. “The
trust gap makes digital identity essential for digital health,”
concluded Andre Boysen, Chief Identity Officer, SecureKey.
Andre Boysen, CIO, SecureKey

10. 10
T
Identity for Democracy:
Privacy and Data Security
outlined the requirements for launching a contact tracing app.
The current state of privacy leaves a lot to be desired
and Canada has a long way to go in showing respect
and reverence for people’s personal data. “The time to
act is now. We have to fill that policy void with a robust
national discussion that ensures that our laws at long
last are updated and fit for purpose,” advised Dr. Michael
Geist, Law Professor and Canada Research Chair in
Internet and E-commerce Law, University of Ottawa.
Many references to the European Union’s GDPR and
Quebec’s Bill 64 - An Act to Modernize Legislative Provisions
Respecting the Protection of Personal Information provided
a snapshot of where experts hope we’re headed. Put simply,
all organizations need to “Treat data like a liability not an
asset,” instructed Kris Constable, CEO, ID VPN.
“The identification and authentication
debate is for the public arena - it’s not
to be left to the tech giants alone,” said
Commissioner Michael McEvoy, Information
and Privacy Commissioner for British
Columbia, Office of the Information and
Privacy Commissioner for BC. “
People want convenience, yes, but the stakes for citizens
are huge when they turn over their identity for these
companies to manage.”
Understanding the lessons we can learn from history -
both recent and long-past - can help ensure surveillance,
monopolies, and the rights of users and user agents are
kept in check. “We’re starting to realize that the data
and technology choices we make today are not limited
to just local issues or industry choices - they are choices
about the world and the world we choose to design is so
critical,” David Bray, Inaugural Director, Atlantic Council
- GeoTech Center and Commission said in a TD Bank,
Identity for Good Session, calling on leaders to make the
right decisions today. “I think we have about 5-10 years
to demonstrate that tech and data can make our world
more inclusive, more open, and more just.”
he word ‘privacy’ emerged in almost every
session - but the dedicated Privacy and
Data Security stream made it clear how
fundamental privacy and data security are to
our industry and to our democratic society as
a whole. “Privacy is the foundation of our freedom,” Ann
Cavoukian, PhD, Executive Director, Global Privacy &
Security by Design Centre, pointed out, “and it cannot be
taken lightly by individuals or organizations.”
Moving beyond the technology, conversation focused
on unpacking underlying, intangible qualities that make
the system work, like trust. “We’re very conscious about
how we build trust. There’s some people out there trust
the government more than private industry, some people
trust private industry more than government,” said Sean
McLeish, CIO & Assistant Deputy Minister of ICT, Yukon.
“We need to find our way through this ecosystem online
for digital identity so that our citizens can operate safely
in the world and find the best choices for them.”
“You can reduce friction when trust is built up over
time,” explained Greg Kliewer, Senior Security Systems
Engineer at Transmit Security. We saw lots of inspiring
examples from the industry of what’s possible with new
technologies being deployed for airtight verification and
new concepts like antibody passports. However, many
ideas need adoption to work, and adoption relies on
citizens’ trust and confidence that their information will
be protected. We need to trust that violators who fail to
protect our data will face tough consequences.
Organizations are confident in their technology - but
citizens aren’t confident in their data protection rights.
“When privacy statements say, ‘may change at any time’ -
it becomes my burden as a consumer to go back every six
months and check,” Alec Laws, CTO, Identos said, “It’s not
promoting the right outcomes.”
COVID-19 has raised new privacy concerns for Canadians.
Contact tracing apps and immunity passports led by
governments were a hot topic throughout the Summit.
Their impressive technical potential raised a unique set of
concerns. Experts and attendees agreed that it will be crucial
for citizens to understand how COVID-19 data collected
will be protected, anonymized, and terminated to avoid
stigmatizing, violating, or harming different communities.
“Contact tracing has the potential to open up a huge field
for a new type of coercion and discrimination,” explained
Lilian Edwards, Chair of Law at Newcastle University as she
Ann Cavoukian, Executive Director, Global Privacy & Security by Design Centre

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