I am writing to extend a heartfelt thank you to Mr. Schull and Ms. Yang for supporting my internship at the Citizen Lab this summer as part of the 缅北强奸 International Human Rights Internship Program. As a third-year law student with a longstanding interest in democracy and human rights, my experience at the Citizen Lab gave me an opportunity to expand my horizons and contribute to democracy work in an international context.
A little about me. I completed my Bachelor鈥檚 degree at 缅北强奸 in Psychology and Economics in 2015. Always fascinated about democracy 鈥� the collective process through which we negotiate communal life 鈥� I spent five years working in non-profit and philanthropic organizations before attending Law school. Notably, I was president of the board of directors of Apathy is Boring, a non-partisan, charitable organization that engages young people as active and contributing citizens in Canada鈥檚 democracy. In the 2019 federal election, the organization reached over 1.4 million young people through on-the-ground and online get-out-the-vote campaigns. My involvement with the organization taught me the importance of strong democratic institutions combined with an independent judiciary that upholds human rights. Nevertheless, I had never worked on democratic issues from an international standpoint.
I was overjoyed to be placed at the Citizen Lab for my human rights internship this summer. The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto that focuses on research, development, and high-level strategic policy and legal engagement at the intersection of information and communication technologies, human rights, and global security. The Lab uses a 鈥渕ixed methods鈥� approach to research combining practices from political science, law, computer science, and area studies. Research areas include investigating digital espionage against civil society, documenting Internet filtering and other technologies and practices that impact freedom of expression online, analyzing privacy, security, and information controls of popular applications, and examining transparency and accountability mechanisms relevant to the relationship between corporations and state agencies regarding personal data and other surveillance activities.
During my time at the Citizen Lab, my work focused on two projects: (1) researching and drafting an academic article about how greater government and corporate transparency requirements regarding the export of surveillance technologies can prevent human rights harms and (2) conducting interviews and transcribing interviews for an ongoing study about how governments use digital tools to repress political dissent across borders. This work allowed me to deepen my understanding of international law, trade law, national security, and human rights. I particularly enjoyed my interviews with human rights defenders. Every interview was a deep dive into the political situation in various countries across the world. Despite the nuances and intricacies of each of their stories, there was one common theme. Most of them were faced with an impossible choice: having to choose between their own safety and that of their family on the one hand, and their ability to speak out about injustice on the other.
Hearing from individuals who have such moral courage only strengthened my own resolve to use the law as a tool to address injustice, promote human rights, and strengthen democracy. In the short-term, I will continue doing so at the Citizen Lab, where I will be staying on as a Legal Extern throughout the fall. I will also be doing so as a Student-at-Law at Trudel Johnston & Lesp茅rance, a public interest litigation firm in Montr茅al where I am working on a class action on behalf of prisoners who were put in solitary confinement. I could think of few ways to put my law degree to better use.
I would like to thank Mr. Schull and Ms. Yang聽for contributing to my journey. Without their support, I would not have had this opportunity to learn from and contribute to an impactful organization like the Citizen Lab. I am immensely grateful for their聽generosity.
