News

The  Supreme Court of Canada and the Ontario Court of Appeal have just granted the Centre for Free Expression the right to intervene in three major cases before them. “We’re honoured that Canada’s top courts have allowed the Centre to serve as a friend of the court to bring potentially useful perspectives to the courts’ deliberations on important cases,” said James L. Turk, Director of the Centre.

Ryder Gilliland, Founding Partner of DMG Advocates LLP and Past President of the Canadian Media Lawyers Association (CMLA), is joining the Centre for Free Expression Advisory Board. 

Meghan McDermott, interim policy director for the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, is joining the Centre for Free Expression Advisory Board. Meghan has a B.A. in philosophy from Concordia University, a J.D. from the University of Victoria, and LL.M. from the University of Edinburgh where her work focused on whether parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change have a responsibility to share the benefits of their forestry-related activities with local and Indigenous communities. 

A survey of those working in Canada’s live entertainment industry reported a significant reduction in incidents of harassment and discrimination following introduction of Canadian Actors Equity’s Not in Our Space! national anti-harassment program several years previously.

In light of challenges during the pandemic, the Canadian Association of Journalists, the Centre for Free Expression, News Media Canada and the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression are extending the deadline for nominations for the 2020 Code of Silence awards for outstanding achievement in government secrecy to Monday, November 16, 2020.  The awards are given annually in each of four categories -- federal, provincial, municipal, and police services.

The Centre for Free Expression, along with its co-signers BCCLA, CAUT, CCLA, and PEN Canada, have written today to the CEOs of Zoom and YouTube to express deep concern with the companies’ censorship of an academic roundtable at an American university. This action points to the new threat to academic freedom when, because of the coronavirus, most classes and other educational activities of universities and colleges are only possible through platforms such as Zoom and YouTube.