Chantal Bernier

Chantal leads the Canadian Privacy and Cybersecurity practice of Dentons Canada LLP. She began at Dentons in 2014, after nearly six years of leading the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) as interim privacy commissioner and as assistant commissioner. She oversaw the operations of the OPC, including national and international privacy investigations in the public and private sectors, privacy audits and privacy impact assessment reviews, as well as technological analysis, privacy policy development and research.

At the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, Chantal led the development of concrete frameworks and tools to bring solutions to privacy challenges. They included specifically addressing the issue of reconciliation of the anti-money laundering regime with privacy law, and leading ground-breaking investigations in relation to security breaches, data protection governance, online-behavioural advertising and privacy on social networks.

Prior to leading the OPC, Chantal worked at senior levels of the Government of Canada, including as assistant deputy minister responsible for socio-economic development at Aboriginal and Northern Affairs Canada, as assistant deputy minister responsible for community safety and partnerships at Public Safety Canada, and as director of operations for the Machinery of Government Secretariat of the Privy Council Office. Chantal also negotiated international conventions for Canada as part of the International and Constitutional Law Section of the Department of Justice.