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Thursday, September 18, 2025 at 7:00 p.m. MDT

In-person  at the Timms Centre for the Arts, 87 Avenue and 112 Street
or Livestream

Trailled by Timmies: Surveillance Technology, AI and Human Futures

Would you like surveillance with your Double-Double?” Like it or not, you get surveillance before you even take your first sip. And the connection between the ‘coffee data’ and AI is close--AI generates surveillance, on an industrial scale. Worrying about the impacts of ChatGPT in high schools is one thing; what about AI issues in facial recognition cameras, used at sporting and related events; in worker monitoring and control at Uber and in the gig economy generally; and in national security agencies, who are sometimes cagey about their use of AI? Why and how are surveillance risks of AI often under-estimated and ill-considered, and why do appeals to “privacy” only scratch the surface of the contemporary problem? Have we become too “machine-centred” in approaching matters that matter to human beings?"

Join us for an urgent and eye-opening conversation on the overlooked consequences of AI and surveillance in Canada. Following David Lyon’s talk, there will be a panel moderated by Kevin Haggerty (Department of Sociology) featuring expert insights from  Steven Penney (Faculty of Law), Nicolette Little  (Department of Media and Technology Studies/Women's and Gender Studies), and Blair Attard-Frost (Department of Political Science).

About the 2025 speaker: David Lyon - author, scholar, pioneer in surveillance studies

Canadian based, internationally renowned, pioneer in the field of Surveillance Studies. Educated at the University of Bradford, UK and an immigrant to Canada, he has led several large-scale multi disciplinary research projects on surveillance. In addition to numerous articles, he is is the author, editor or co-editor of 31 books which have been translated into 18 languages. These include The Electronic Eye (1994), Transparent Lives: Surveillance in Canada / Vivre à nu: la surveillance au Canada (2014) and Big Data Surveillance and Security Intelligence: The Canadian Case (2022). His most recent book, Surveillance: A Very Short Introduction, was published by Oxford University Press in 2024. He is the former and inaugural Director of the Surveillance Studies Centre at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario where he is also Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Law. For many years, he worked alongside the federal Office of the Privacy Commissoner, researching for reports. He also collaborated with the Office of the Information Privacy Commissioner of BC. David Lyon's many contributions have been recognized through a number of national and international awards, prizes and distinctions. These include the Molson Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Insight-Impact Award from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Sociological Association (Communication and Information Technology Section), the Outstanding Contribution Award from the Canadian Sociological Association, and an honorary doctorate from Università della svizzera italiana. David Lyon also holds fellowships in the Royal Society of Canada and the Academy of Social Sciences, UK.

Panelists

Blair Attard-Frost

Blair Attard-Frost is an Assistant Professor at º£½ÇÉçÇø’s Department of Political Science and a Fellow at the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii). Her research applies a trans feminist lens to address challenges of power, participation, and justice in the governance of artificial intelligence. She recently completed her PhD in Information Studies at University of Toronto.

Nicolette Little

Nicolette Little teaches with the º£½ÇÉçÇø’s Media and Technology Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies programs. Her research interests include feminist media interventions in gender-based violence (GBV), technology-facilitated violence, and automated algorithmic harm. She advises the Canadian federal government, media, and non-profits regarding media and GBV, and played a key role advising law enforcement and media in the aftermath of the so-called “Toronto Van Attack.” Her book, From Red Dresses to Memory Stones: Multimedia Activism and Gender-Based Violence in Canada will be out May 2026, published by University of British Columbia Press. Her current research, supported by a SSHRC Insight Development Grant, examines women’s mediated attempts to crowdsource dating safety in the context of increasing rates of both online dating site use and gendered abuse.

Steven Penney

Steven Penney is a Professor at the Faculty of Law, º£½ÇÉçÇø. Born and raised in Edmonton, he received a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws from the º£½ÇÉçÇø and a Master of Laws from Harvard Law School. He researches, teaches, and consults in the areas of criminal procedure, evidence, substantive criminal law, privacy, and law and technology. He is co-author of Criminal Procedure in Canada and co-editor of Evidence: A Canadian Casebook, a member of the advisory boards of the Alberta Law Review and Canadian Journal of Law & Justice, and Chair of the Centre for Constitutional Studies advisory board. Previously, he was Associate Dean (Graduate Studies & Research) at the Faculty of Law, º£½ÇÉçÇø; Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Western Ontario; Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of New Brunswick, and law clerk to Mr. Justice Gérard V. La Forest of the Supreme Court of Canada. He is the winner of the Faculty of Law Tevie Miller Teaching Excellence Award (2020) and the Law Society of Alberta / Canadian Bar Association Distinguished Service Award for Legal Scholarship (2021).

Kevin Haggerty (Panel Chair)

Kevin Haggerty is a Full Professor of Sociology and Criminology at the º£½ÇÉçÇø and a Killam Research Laureate. Formerly the Executive and Managing Editor of the Canadian Journal of Sociology for 15 years, his interdisciplinary research spans surveillance, incarceration, policing, marginalized communities, research ethics, harm reduction, and security studies. He has received the Martha Cook Piper Research Prize, three Faculty of Arts Research Awards, and has held a Killam Research Fellowship and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair.