Partner, lawyer
Aya Barbach
Contact
Montreal
25th Floor1100 René-Lévesque Blvd. West
Montreal, Quebec H3B 5C9
CANADA 514 397-8500 514 397-8515 info@bcf.ca
Profile
Aya Barbach is a partner in the Data Protection, Privacy and Cybersecurity Group. Her practice focuses on privacy, cybersecurity, access to information and online advertising and marketing.
Aya advises and supports both private sector companies and public organizations in all areas of information technology and data protection. She has experience in all legal and governance issues related to data protection and privacy, including the management of privacy incidents (including breach risk assessment and potential notification obligations, as well as internal and external communication strategy), the implementation of contracts, policies and procedures (such as personal information transfer contracts, privacy policy, consent form and any other document related to data protection issues).
She also assists organizations with audits and investigations, notably before the Commission d'accès à l'information.
Aya also advises and supports employers on all digital and data protection issues related to their employee relations (such as employee privacy policies, employee consent forms, video surveillance policies, regulator investigations following employee complaints). She represents employers in grievances and appeals concerning privacy and personal information protection issues.
Aya also acts on behalf of organizations in access to information requests and inquiries before the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec.
She pleads before judicial and administrative tribunals, including the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec.
For several years now, Aya has been a frequent contributor to discussions on data protection, notably by making submissions to Canadian regulators, including the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec, and by giving numerous training sessions and conferences to the public. She is also the author of numerous publications in her field.
Expertise
Industries
Education
- Barreau du Québec (2018)
- LL.B. (by equivalence), Université de Montréal (2017)
- Law licence, Catholic University of Lyon (2013)
Recognition(s)
- Best Lawyers in Canada : Ones to watch (2025) - Privacy and Data Security Law
Publications
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« Opinion: Protection des renseignements personnels - Le bout du tunnel est de moins en moins visible »
Published in La Presse, April 1, 2021
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« Le droit à la vie privée sous toutes ses facettes : l'année 2018 en panorama »
Cahiers de la propriété intellectuelle, vol 31, nº 2, pp. 343-359, May 1, 2019
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« Commentaire sur la décision Forget c. Gareau : une mise en demeure par texto, c'est (encore et toujours) possible! »
Repères, Éditions Yvon Blais, EYB2018REP2396, January 31, 2018
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« Commentary on the decision Attorney General of Canada v. 6569641 Canada inc. - Preuve de la notification technologique : il n'y a résolument qu'une lettre de TIC à hic...” »
Repères, Éditions Yvon Blais, EYB2017REP2342, October 1, 2017
Representative Work
- Assisted private-sector companies and public bodies with their compliance with Bill 25;
- Successfully acted on behalf of several private-sector companies before the Commission d'accès à l'information in disagreement proceedings under section 42 of the Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector;
- Successfully acted on behalf of a municipality before the Superior Court to have a citizen declared a querulous litigant by limiting his rights of access to information by subjecting him to the prior authorization of the Commission d'accès à l'information;
- Acted on behalf of private and public sector employers before administrative and civil tribunals in grievance/litigation cases involving personal information/privacy issues;
- Accompaniment of companies in the pharmaceutical sector in the deployment and analysis of Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs).
Professional Affiliation(s)
- Member of the Barreau du Québec
Involvement
- Lecturer at the Master’s level in Life Sciences in the field of personal information protection and privacy, Université de Sherbrooke (since 2020)
- Wrote briefs and recommendations for the Commission d'accès à l'information, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and the Commission des institutions de l'Assemblée nationale du Québec
- Speaker for “Les affaires” on privacy and information security (2021)
- Speaker at Thomson Reuters Foundation, “Personal data in the context of Covid-19”, (2020)
- Conference given at the Data Science Institute responsible for the health field, entitled “Accès aux données de santé au Québec, perspective juridique”, (2020)