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News September 18, 2019

CFE Launches Workplace Free Expression Legal Database

The Centre for Free Expression in collaboration with Charles Smith and Daniel J. Paré has launched the Freedom of Expression @Work Database today. The searchable, online database contains legal decisions regarding dismissals and discipline of employees for use of social media in the workplace and outside of work.

Social media has radically transformed the ability of individuals to transmit and publish their thoughts and opinions. One consequence has been to blur the boundary between employees’ public right to free expression and their private obligations as employees. In Canada, as elsewhere, employees are increasingly being disciplined or dismissed for engaging in social media-based activities outside of the workplace. This raises important questions about the extent to which personal activity outside of work is becoming subject to employer control.

Please read the most recent CFE Blog Post by Charles Smith and Daniel J. Paré, Free to express yourself outside of work? Workplace discipline in the age of social media, which is a wonderful introduction to the issue and the database.