Legal Corner

2008-2009 Essay Competition

In support of our work at the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, we are pleased to announce the 2008-2009 Essay Competition: Think Privacy! This essay competition is designed to encourage students in law schools and legal studies programs across Canada to join us in exploring the challenges, critically reflecting on the issues, and contributing to the expanding community of thought on privacy.

For this year’s competition, students may submit essays on any one of the Office’s four strategic priorities:

The winner will be eligible to receive up to $5,000:

  • $2,500 for the winning essay
  • Eligibility for an additional $2,500 in research funds to further develop the winning essay into a publishable article

News Release

Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada Announces Winner of Essay Contest
June 1, 2009

Competition Rules

Eligible Applicants

This competition is open to any undergraduate student currently studying either common or civil law, in a faculty of law or as part of a legal studies program at a Canadian university.

Language

Submissions will be accepted in either English or French.

Submissions

Submissions will be accepted electronically or by mail. Please forward submissions to:

competition-concours@priv.gc.ca

or

Think Privacy! 2008-2009 Essay Competition
Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Suite 300, 112 Kent Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 1H3

Please note that essays submitted will not be returned.

Deadlines

In order to be eligible, essay submissions must be received by the OPC mailroom or on the OPC web server no later than 5:00pm (Eastern Standard Time) on Friday May 1, 2009.

The winner will be announced by June 1, 2009.

Prize

The winner will be eligible to receive up to $5,000.

A $2,500 prize will be awarded to the author of the winning essay.

The winner will become eligible for an additional $2,500 in research funds to transform the winning essay into a publishable article, under the supervision of a privacy scholar appointed by the OPC. The final article must be submitted to the OPC no later than December 31, 2009 for pre-publication on its website.

The winner will retain copyright in the work and the opportunity to publish the article in an appropriate law review or scholarly journal.

Topics

Eligible submissions must frame a research question and develop a thesis statement on privacy relating to any of the following four topics:

  • Information Technology and Privacy
  • National Security and Privacy
  • Identity Integrity and Protection
  • Genetic Privacy

Submission Format

Eligible submissions must include a separate cover sheet indicating the following:

  • The title of your submission
  • Your name
  • Year and program of study
  • Name of school
  • Contact information

** Please note that all entries will be anonymized prior to being submitted for evaluation by the Adjudication Panel. It is therefore important that your name and contact information only appear on the separate cover page and not in the body of your submission.**

Eligible electronic submissions must be in MS Word, Word Perfect, or PDF.

Submissions must not exceed 10,000 words in length, including footnotes.

Pages must be numbered consecutively.

Identifying information about the authors must not appear on any page other than the separate cover sheet.

Original, unpublished work

All submissions must be the author’s own original, unpublished work. Each submission must provide references to all sources relied upon and must be properly cited. Improper attribution will result in the disqualification of the submission.

Only one submission will be accepted per author. Should more than one submission be received by the same author, only the first submission will be considered.

Late, lost or damaged submissions

Entries will not be considered if all or part of the essay is illegible or if it is incomplete. The OPC does not take any responsibility for late, lost, damaged, incomplete, illegible, postage due or misdirected entries.

Selection process

Eligible essays will be forwarded to a panel of judges selected and approved by the OPC for adjudication.

Entries will be judged according to the following criteria:

  • importance of research question
  • engagement with / integration of existing literature
  • quality and clarity of prose
  • articulation / development of thesis statement
  • breadth / scope of analysis
  • originality of contribution
  • quality of authorities / citations
  • persuasiveness
  • precision / concision
  • style / insight

The OPC reserves the right not to award a prize where none of the submissions meet contest standards or criteria.

The decision of the Adjudication Panel is final.

Personal information

By entering this contest, you authorize the OPC to use the personal information you provide for the purpose of administering the essay competition and announcing the winning essay.

Further information

If you have any questions about the competition, please contact:

Nathalie Daigle
Legal Counsel
Legal Services, Policy and Parliamentary Affairs Branch
Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
ndaigle@priv.gc.ca
(613) 996-6791