She concentrates on access to information and data protection matters
Former Nova Scotia Information and Privacy Commissioner Tricia Ralph has joined INQ Law as a partner in its Toronto office today.
Ralph focuses on matters involving access to information, data governance, privacy, data protection, risk management and health privacy. She is knowledgeable in applying and enforcing privacy and access laws.
She gleaned litigation experience while serving as legal counsel with the Government of the Northwest Territories. She has appeared before the Territorial Court of the Northwest Territories, the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories, and the Court of Appeal for the Northwest Territories.
As Information and Privacy Commissioner for Nova Scotia, she helped to lead the development of access and privacy laws and drafted submissions on legislative change in the province. Last June, she called out the provincial government’s limited support for the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner in her 2024 annual report. In particular, she highlighted the lack of human resources in the form of permanent staff.
The office’s understaffing cut down the time that could be spent providing more detail in the report, according to CBC. The report also pointed to the MOVEit cybersecurity breach as a challenging event for the office; 110 new privacy complaints were filed in four months, which was significantly up from the average of 10 complaints a year in previous years. The office also received approximately 700 calls, most of which were seeking an audience with the Nova Scotia government.
The report indicated in a snippet published by CBC that “no additional resources were provided to our office to address the biggest privacy breach in the history of our province.”
Ralph was also previously Information and Privacy Commissioner for Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. As a regulator, she wrote over 80 access and privacy reports.
Ralph was admitted to the Nova Scotia Bar in 2010. Earlier in her legal career, she concentrated on health and privacy law. She has spoken at International Association of Privacy Professionals, the Canadian Bar Association, and the Canadian Health Information Management Association.
