CFE Blog

The interests at stake in a recent investigation[1] by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (the “OPC”) can be evoked in two imaginative exercises. First, how would you feel if you had been accused of a crime, the charge had been stayed many years ago, but news articles about the incident were still easily accessible to anyone who typed your name into a search engine?

There is little doubt that social media has introduced many kinds of challenges to the lives of young people. Whether we chose to or not, most of us have come upon some nasty stuff on the internet. Australia has led what will likely be an international rush to regulate kids’ access to social media. Should we applaud this new measure or should we worry about it?

In May 2025, Alberta’s Minister of Education issued Ministerial Order 030/2025, setting province-wide rules governing access to literary materials in K–12 schools. While presented as a child-protection measure, a subsequent clarification made clear that the order applies not only to school libraries, but to entire school environments—including classrooms, supplementary reading, and voluntary access spaces.

Occasionally, governments introduce legislation that gets things wrong. That certainly is the case for the Liberal Government’s Bill C-9: The Combatting Hate Act. Every aspect of it is flawed.This is a special concern because it is a bill that restricts free expressive rights. Expressive freedom is never without limits, but our courts have been very clear that any restrictions must minimally impair our fundamental democratic freedoms. 

On October 8th, in the middle of Banned Book Week, I had the privilege of seeing the documentary film, The Librarians, and then moderating a panel discussion with the filmmaker Kim A. Snyder and two remarkable women, Courtney Gore and Becky Calzada who are featured in the film.

I was shocked when the University of Alberta administration informed me, one of its law professors, that I was being placed on non-disciplinary leave for my social media comments in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination—comments that unquestionably fall within the scope of academic freedom and freedom of expression.