Resources

Dismantling Democracy: Stifling debate and dissent in Canada

In Dismantling Democracy: Stifling debate and dissent in Canada, Voices-Voix documents the abuse of parliamentary rules, the intimidation of public servants, and the defunding and intimidation of organizations that hold views at odds with the government.

The report documents where the federal government has gutted the capacity of its own departments and independent agencies to offer information and analysis needed to make sound policy choices. From scuttling the long-form census, to muzzling scientists, to cutting funding for evidence-based advocacy, the report argues that the government has pursued a deliberate strategy to repress alternative views.

Voices is calling on Canadians to press politicians for clear commitments to uphold rights, promote healthy dialogue and strengthen democracy.

Read the report here.

Share the report by clicking here for Facebook, or here for Twitter.

Add your voice, by signing the Voices-Voix Declaration here.

Canada’s Privacy Plan: A Crowdsourced Agenda to tackle Canada’s Privacy Deficit

Open Media – Canada’s growing privacy deficit has alarming consequences for our everyday lives. We’re at a tipping point where we need to decide whether to continue evolving into a surveillance society, or whether to rein in the government’s spying apparatus before more lives are ruined by information disclosures.

This crowdsourced plan outlines common sense steps to strengthen privacy safeguards for all of us.

Here are the reports of 3 important commissions of inquiry that took place in Canada and which include numerous recommendations on how to improve the oversight and review mechanisms of Canadian national security agencies to ensure that these tragic events and abuses never happen again. To this day, they still have not been implemented by the Canadian government.

Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to Maher Arar, presided by Justice Dennis O’Connor – 2006

Report of the Internal Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad Abou-Elmaati and Muayyed Nureddin, presided by Justice Frank Iacobucci – 2008

Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Investigation of the Bombing of Air India Flight 182, presided by Justice John Major – 2010