Protecting Privacy, Preserving Human Rights: Active Citizenship and Reporting PIPEDA Non-Compliance tracks the practice of posting surveillance images of suspected shoplifters in Winnipeg grocery stores. The clear violations of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and individuals’ privacy is concerning, while also being indicative of attempts to publicly shame and pre-criminalize alleged shoplifters. In this research, the limitations of PIPEDA will be considered, and to what extent there is slippage between privacy violations and human rights violations in the context of shaming and pre-criminalizing Indigenous people in the practice of publicly sharing surveillance images. This research aims to contextualize these violations within the human rights landscape, to ensure that ongoing and intensifying media coverage of food theft does not continue to serve as a distraction from larger social issues that are actually impeding access to food. This research is funded by CHRR.

The Food Police: Carceral Food Spaces in Winnipeg identifies and examines modes of surveillance and policing that operate in Winnipeg food spaces, namely grocery stores. This project seeks to understand how food spaces are made carceral through surveillance and policing, the implications of surveillance and police presence in grocery stores for safe access to food, and the implications of securitized and policed food spaces for individuals to maintain food security, especially for Indigenous people who are pre- and over- criminalized in these spaces. This research is funded by SSHRC.

Policing the Food Theft Crisis in Winnipeg is undertaking a comprehensive examination and analysis of how the food theft ‘crisis’ has evolved, circulated, and impacted Indigenous residents in Winnipeg. This research pursues the following research questions: To what extent has the ‘crisis’ of food theft and shoplifting been narrativized in the media alongside Winnipeg’s ‘meth crisis’? How have Indigenous residents responded to increasing instances of pre-criminalization and surveillance that result from a perceived food theft crisis? What are the possible legal and social implications of a perceived food theft ‘crisis’? This research is funded by UM SSHRC Explore.