Articles by author: Brock University

• Canadians need to consider implications of COVID-19 surveillance, says Brock prof

  Tuesday, April 21, 2020 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 21 April 2020 – R0070

  Canadians need to be ready to make decisions about the kinds of surveillance they are willing to accept to manage the COVID-19 pandemic and for how long, says a Brock University professor and expert in digital privacy.

  “We must consider the ethical questions regarding a widespread surveillance program before these decisions are made from a position of desperation,” says Aaron Mauro, Assistant Professor with Brock’s Centre for Digital Humanities.

  “We are in the midst of a crisis, so we need to anticipate the next decisions the government will make so that citizens will be better able to voice concerns in an informed way,” he says. “We might make decisions during the pandemic that would ignore very pressing and important issues, so we need to consider them in advance.”

  These issues include the length of surveillance, who will be authorized to access the data, how the data will be used, the difficulty of ensuring anonymity, consequences of data leaks and the preservation or destruction of collected data once the pandemic passes.

  Google and Apple are rapidly developing a tracking system as part of their cell phone operating systems. Initially planned for use in the U.S., it will use Bluetooth technology to record the proximity of individuals for contact tracing.

  While this sort of tracing by public health professionals is often a time consuming, labourious and inexact process, the data collected through cell phone technology could quickly and anonymously notify individuals who may have been exposed to someone with COVID-19. However, citizens must be willing to divulge their location as well as their social encounters continuously.

  Mauro points out the success of Singapore, which developed a voluntary model using the open source tracing app called TraceTogether. Cellphone tracking is also being used in South Korea and telecommunications companies in Italy, Germany and Austria have been sharing data with government authorities.

  A number of Canadian companies are reportedly in talks with various levels of government to develop similar tracking systems for use in Canada. Health Canada has already collaborated with a Vancouver-based tech company to develop the Canada COVID-19 app and self-assessment tool for voluntary reporting of symptoms.

  “Moments of crisis throughout history have been used as an opportunity to infringe upon civil rights and grant extraordinary powers to government,” says Mauro. “COVID-19 is similar to the 9/11 terrorist attacks because it is a genuine crisis in which a fearful citizenry is now willing to grant these exceptional powers to legislators in the name of public safety.”

  While the Canadian government has not committed to using cell phone surveillance, it also hasn’t ruled it out.

  “If Canadian governments choose to use this data, it will be important to include judiciary oversight to both limit the use of this information and eventually shut down these programs and delete their data after the crisis is over,” he says.

  Aaron Mauro, Assistant Professor with Brock’s Centre for Digital Humanities is available for interviews.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases

• Social infrastructure, particularly child care will be central to Canada’s economic recovery: Brock expert

  Monday, April 20, 2020 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 20 April 2020 – R0069

  Immediate financial support of the child-care sector will be a key factor in Canada’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, says a Brock University Sociology professor.

  Associate Professor Kate Bezanson, an expert in social policy and political economy, says as the federal government continues to manage the immediate health, social and economic challenges of COVID-19, it also needs to support child-care services if it wants to see a lasting recovery from the pandemic.

  “In the short term, if regulated child-care centres don’t have targeted supports now to meet their operating costs, many of them will fold,” Bezanson says. “If that happens, when the crisis ends, we will have very limited capacity for those working at home now to return to the labour market.”

  Bezanson recently joined Andrew Bevan, a former Chief of Staff to a Premier of Ontario and a federal Leader of the Opposition, as well as Sheridan College Early Childhood Education Professor Monica Lysack in authoring a policy report titled “From stabilization to stimulus and beyond: A roadmap to social and economic recovery.”

  A summary of the paper was published recently in First Policy Response, and the trio have also written an opinion column about the issue which is expected to be published this week.

  The policy paper identifies key elements that Bezanson and her co-authors believe should inform government decisions around stabilization, stimulus and recovery periods including: fostering social solidarity; placing care at the core of policy decisions; encouraging collaborative federalism and federal leadership; and centrally, investing in social infrastructure with child care as a building block as a key recovery tool.

  “The monumental challenge posed by the COVID-19 crisis requires us to react in real time, but also to plan now to build the infrastructure we’re going to need so that its available to move to recovery and allow us to come out the other side,” she says. “This means learning from the mistakes of past economic crises, and investing in social and not just built infrastructure in order to stimulate both women’s and men’s employment.”

  Bezanson says that the initial impacts of COVID-19 pandemic have been gendered.

  “Stats Can data from March found that a disproportionate share of those who were laid off or had hours significantly reduced were women,” she says. “For women still working — primarily from home — many are having to balance paid work demands with taking care of children.
  “Women have additionally borne this crisis with particular severity as they are the majority of essential front-line health care and social service workers.”

  Bezanson says it will be crucial that the care sector — and especially regulated child care — be at the core of the recovery phase of dealing with the crisis.

  “The result of that not happening is you will have parents struggling to find care at a time when they are eager to return to work,” she says. “This, in turn, would stunt the speed of the economic recovery.”

  Bezanson and her co-authors argue that the federal government should also create the promised Childcare Secretariat office, which would become the “clearinghouse for efforts to support, shore up and build a much-needed child-care system,” they write. “This will result in the creation of new jobs within the system — and draw more women into the labour market, essential to a strong sustainable recovery.”

  Associate Professor of Sociology Kate Bezanson is available for phone and Skype/Facetime interviews.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases