The Latest

On March 8th and June 6th, 2017, the Minister of Justice introduced bills to amend the Criminal Code. The purpose of Bills C-39 and C-51 is to repeal a number of criminal offences. Blasphemous libel is on the list, but seditious libel and defamatory libel are not.

Kudos to House committee for sound recommendations on whistleblower protection By DAVID HUTTON PUBLISHED : Monday, June 26, 2017 12:00 AM OTTAWA—The parliamentary committee studying Canada’s federal whistle blowing law for the past five months has unanimously called on the Trudeau government to make sweeping changes to the act.

Pornography has once again been thrust onto the public stage. This time, however, it’s been (re)framed as a “public health” issue (as opposed to a women’s equality issue or a source of criminal harm). I’ve been researching sexual speech for almost as long as I’ve been consuming it, which is to say a long time. It therefore comes as no surprise that we’re in the midst of yet another attempt to censor it and to surveille its consumers.

Postponed transparency bill does little to promote access while government increases secrecy by Ken Rubin, Hill Times, June 27, 2017 p.15

Events of early 2017 in Canada and the US raised once again the question: why are Islamic people so often subjected to discrimination, repression and violence in our societies and abroad? Among the reasons is denigration of Islamic religion and culture by intellectuals whose writing has long been given prominence by Western mainstream media. Their disinformation helped to generate a political environment in which some people in the West uncritically accept severe actions against Muslims by governments, groups or individuals, and curtailments of rights for all.

Media Release Committee report puts fate of Canadian whistleblowers in Trudeau’s hands OTTAWA, June 16, 2017 - Today a House of Commons committee released its hard-hitting report that calls for a major overhaul of Canada’s inadequate federal whistleblower protection legislation. The Government Operations Committee report recommends a number of changes to provide genuine protection to federal civil servants that blow the whistle on government wrongdoing.