The Latest

Stratford City Council has been selected as the 2021 recipient of the Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy in the municipal category.

Late in 2021, the Supreme Court of Canada rendered two of its most consequential Charter decisions on freedom of expression in recent years: City of Toronto v. Ontario and Ward v. Quebec. That endpoint in 2021 is the starting point of a 5-part series on s.2(b) of the Charter and its passage from 1982 to the present. The series begins with City of Toronto and Ward, two decisions dividing the Court 5-4 and pointing in opposite directions that raise perplexing questions about expressive freedom – and the Court itself. Of particular concern is the bloc mentality of these decisions and how it undermined principled decision making on important s.2(b) issues.

British Columbia Premier John Horgan, Minister of Citizens’ Services Lisa Beare, and the provincial government of B.C. have been selected as the 2021 recipients of the Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy in the provincial category. 

By Ian G. Bron & David Hutton Centre for Free Expression Whistleblowing Initiative

The Centre for Free Expression (CFE) is publishing today a detailed guide for evaluating whistleblower protection legislation and policy.  Titled Evaluation Criteria for Protection of Whistleblowers. the guide is a tool for evaluating the adequacy of arrangements by governments and private sector organizations for enabling reporting on concerns about organizational wrongdoing or other information important for the public interest.