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By Ken Rubin April 20, 2020 - COVID-19 puts privacy rights under attack. Zoom-bomers, COVID-19 scammers, and cellphone trackers are gaining ground as Canadians self-isolate. With the necessity of greater cyberspace interactions, the crisis continues to introduce or enhance more grounds for privacy invasion.

By Ken Rubin Trudeau isn't transparent enough; Some agencies have simply placed requests for information from the public on hold, despite this being a violation of the Access to Information Act. On April 17, 2020, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised his government would proactively disseminate COVID-19 related information on-line. But the CBC, in its ongoing “Big Spend”series, has been reporting on the many gaps in available government information on the billions in pandemic funds going out the door.

The Centre for Free Expression joined four other press freedom organizations in calling on the federal government to permit  the media to provide the public with an accurate and timely depiction of the state of current COVID-19 health risks in federal prisons and among federal inmates in provincial institutions.

More that 300 organizations, academics, and public figures have called on governments in Canada to ensure that human rights are central in their responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

For those of us who have young people in our lives, the COVID-19 pandemic can present a unique opportunity to engage them in exercises that focus on democracy. Whether those young people are stuck in your home with you, or are distanced from you and only reachable using some kind of media (including your basic telephone), you can spend a little of the rather too abundant time we now have asking and considering important questions. 

On March 19th, the Executive of the General Faculties Council at the University of Alberta took the unusual step of acting on delegated authority, at a special meeting, to refuse to grant students letter grades for their Winter 2020 courses. The plan, instead, was for students to receive only a CR (credit) or NC (no credit) notation on their transcripts.