Staff

Geoff White

Executive Director/General Counsel

Geoff White is the Executive Director and General Counsel at PIAC. Geoff previously served as the Executive Director and General Counsel of the Competitive Network Operators of Canada, where he championed the interests of competitive telecom service providers. Other mandates include Director and Regulatory Counsel for the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services, External Counsel to PIAC, and Counsel and Senior Regulatory Analyst at MTS Allstream.
Geoff has taught Communications Law at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Common Law and served as an advisor to the Broadcasting & Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel.
Geoff holds a BA from McGill University, a JD and MBA from the University of Windsor, a BCL from Oxford, and the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors. He is an active member of the Board of Directors for Firefighters Without Borders and has previously contributed to the Board of Directors of the CCTS. He also works as an on-call firefighter for the Municipality of Chelsea.

John Lawford

Special Counsel

John Lawford is Special Counsel to PIAC. He was Executive Director and General Counsel from September 2012 to September 2024. Prior to coming to PIAC, John was a lawyer at a large national law firm doing medical-legal research. John has also been Research Director at a major Ottawa law firm. John was Special Projects Director and Webmaster for QUICKLAW Inc. from 1992 to 1999. He has an undergraduate degree in English and a Law degree from Queen’s University (1990).John is active in the areas of telecommunications, privacy and financial services from a consumer perspective.

Donna Brady

Office Administrator

Donna Brady joined PIAC in the spring of 1992 as full-time office administrator. Her background is in Business Administration. Previous to joining PIAC, she worked as the Administrative Assistant for a City and Regional Councillor.

Tahira Dawood

Staff Lawyer

Tahira Dawood is a staff lawyer at PIAC. Tahira previously worked as a Policy and Research Analyst at PIAC. She holds a Masters (LL.M.) in Law and Technology from the University of Ottawa, and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of London (International programmes). Before joining PIAC, she volunteered as a Research Analyst at the Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy & Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) and worked on projects concerning copyright law, privacy, and public policy. During her Masters, she interned and worked on a project with PIAC. She has practiced law abroad, focusing on contracts, corporate law, intellectual property rights, and aviation law. Tahira was an articling student with PIAC from July 2020 to May 2021.

Aya Alshahwany

Articling Student

Aya Alshahwany is PIAC’s articling student for 2024-2025.  She graduated from the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law English Common Law (JD) program in 2024. Prior to law school, she completed her undergraduate studies in International Development and Globalization at the University of Ottawa and credits this background for her passion for justice and equity in law and public policy.

PIAC gratefully acknowledges the Law Foundation of Ontario’s grant to host Aya, as part of their Public Interest Articling Fellowship (PIAF) program.