Chris Hurl – The Conversation

Masked ICE agents stand guard outside the Delaney Hall detention centre during a protest against the transfer of detainees in May 2026 in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

July 23, 2026

As ICE’s tech‑enabled dragnet and surveillance expand, activists are fighting back with data of their own

Sarah Grant, Concordia University; Chris Hurl, Concordia University, and Kevin Walby, University of Winnipeg

Grassroots activists and marginalized communities are ‘flipping the script’ on surveillance by watching, documenting and gathering information about powerful institutions such as ICE from below.

As governments depend on multinational consulting firms not just for advice on COVID-19 but for core policy-making functions, we should question the extent to which such partnerships have really augmented government capacities — or hollowed them out. (Shutterstock)

November 10, 2021

Consulting firms are the ‘shadow public service’ managing the response to COVID‑19

Chris Hurl, Concordia University and Leah Barrett Werner, Concordia University

Since the beginning of the pandemic, governments in Canada have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on outside consulting firms like McKinsey, Deloitte and EY with almost no public oversight.

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