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My eight-year-old granddaughter told me last week that she was scared. When I asked her why, she told me that Donald Trump had been elected President of the United States, and that everyone in her class was scared too. And yes, she understood that we live in Canada and that Trump does not lead our country.  It seemed to her and other children that the bogeyman had escaped from their nightmares and had been elected to high office.

A survey conducted by the Centre for Free Expression, in collaboration with the Canadian Association of Journalists and PEN Canada, finds writers and journalists have serious concerns about mass surveillance, resulting in some now self-censoring their own activities. Chilling Free Expression in Canada reports the results of a survey of 129 Canadian writers and journalists between May 27 and June 20, 2016.

Centre for Free Expression in collaboration with PEN Canada and the Canadian Association of Journalists.

What are the outer limits to free speech? Oft cited is the example of yelling “fire” in a crowded theatre. University of Toronto psychology professor Jordan Peterson invoked just this image in a contribution to the Washington, D.C.-based paper, The Hill.

Many countries are stressing the importance of measures to counter radicalization to violence.  Unfortunately, we really don’t know, at this point, what measures are effective.  So far, the limited research and the experience of other countries have mostly served to show us what is not effective.

Chief Justice Strathy of the Ontario Court of Appeal has granted leave to intervene to a coalition of eight organizations, including the Centre for Free Expression, in the appeal of a court order requiring VICE Canada national security reporter Ben Makuch to hand over all notes and communications between him and a suspected ISIS fighter to the RCMP. “Journalists cannot do their jobs of informing the public on controversial issues if they are forced to hand over notes from their discussions with confidential sources,” said James L. Turk, Director of the Centre for Free Expression.