The Latest

News Reports and Commentary Selected by Franklin Carter of the Book and Periodical Council’s Freedom of Expression Committee   In Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice, a judge has fined a videographer $2.5 million for making hateful, defamatory remarks about a Lebanese-Canadian restaurateur. On May 13, 2019, Justice Jane Ferguson ordered Kevin J. Johnston to pay the sum to Mohamad Fakih, the owner and founder of Paramount Fine Foods. REPORTAGE

News Reports and Commentary Selected by Franklin Carter of the Book and Periodical Council’s Freedom of Expression Committee   In Newfoundland and Labrador, the Court of Appeal recently dismissed a civil charge of contempt against Justin Brake, a journalist. The Court of Appeal — which overturned a lower court ruling — delivered its verdict on March 28, 2019.

If you care about corporations monetizing data generated by people’s desire to communicate, you may have read worrying stories featuring some of the Google octopus of companies, including Sidewalk Labs, whose ‘smart city’ proposals for Toronto’s waterfront have drawn much critical attention in this blog and elsewhere.

The Canadian Committee for World Press Freedom has named Ken Rubin, Senior Fellow at the Centre for Free Expression, as its 2018-19 recipient of the Spencer Moore Award for Lifetime Contributions in pursuit of press freedom and freedom of information. 

Entering the Secrecy Club: Judges, the PM  and PMO Head the List in Bill C-58    By Ken Rubin April 29, 2019 - Judging from the Senators' orchestrated recent cave-in removing the public from getting individual judges expenses, Canada's access to information act is well on its way to being made irrelevant.  What the judges' lobby organizations succeeded in doing, without having to go in-camera to twist arms, was to remove from Bill C-58 any traceable idea of what individual judges spend. 

The Freedom of Expression @Work Database contains legal decisions regarding discipline (including dismissal) of employees for their expression via social media and/or in-person either in the workplace and outside of work. It is fully searchable by Case Name, Year, Media Platform, Jurisdiction, Offence, Issue, Key Words (Terminology), and well as the nature of the outcome (Judgment). A free word search is also possible by entering the word(s) in the "Search" box.