CFE Blog

It is widely understood that a society reveals its character in how it treats those with the least power. In Canada, that measure is under strain.Planned reductions of $132.2 million to Correctional Service Canada spending by the 2028–29 fiscal year are expected to affect institutional services, including prison libraries. Proposals to eliminate professional library staff, framed as administrative efficiency, risk removing a core element of rehabilitation. More fundamentally, they risk creating conditions of state-sanctioned information poverty behind bars.

On May 13, the Alberta government passed Bill 28 which amends the Libraries Act to grant the Minister of Municipal Affairs, currently Dan Williams, authority over “management, administration or operation” of every public library in the province. The Bill gives the Minister unprecedented power to issue “any order that the Minister considers appropriate.” 

Probably not, for reasons that point to the limits of what Canada can do here. Recently, governments in Manitoba and Ontario have signaled their support for a ban on social media for children under 16 years of age, and last month, the federal Liberals passed a resolution to this effect at a party convention. Manitoba’s premier Wab Kinew and the national Liberal Party are also keen to ban youth access to “all AI chatbots and other potentially harmful forms of AI interaction.”

Responses to each paragraph of Alberta MLA Nate Glubish’s letter to a constituent publicly defending Government Bill 28 that authorizes provincial takeover of Alberta public libraries.

Canadians finally have a serious and knowledgeable report on how to fix our woeful federal whistleblower protection law – the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act (PSDPA), found by the International Bar Association to the be among the worst on the planet.

Today, the Centre for Free Expression, along with 13 other civil liberties and human rights organizations, sent an open letter to the Prime Minister, key Cabinet ministers, and leaders of opposition parties calling for the withdrawal of the Government’s “Lawful Access” Bill C-22 that is being whisked through Parliament at a pace assuring it can be given no serious consideration.