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  Politicians and parties all claim to support openness and transparency, but how many really do? One test of commitment to open government is the parties’ election platforms. Fourteen organizations that promote transparency, united under the Right to Information Alliance Canada (RTIAC), sent questions on this vital issue to six parties fielding candidates in the Sept. 20 federal election. These organizations include journalists, environmentalists, Indigenous and human-rights groups. 

The Supreme Court of Canada has granted the Centre for Free Expression leave to intervene in its consideration of an important upcoming case regarding public interest standing, the right of a person or organization to bring a case despite their lack of direct involvement in the matter, or any infringement of their personal rights.

Canada’s Access to Information Act was adopted more than 35 years ago and has aged badly. Despite numerous calls for substantial reforms to the legislation, many formal reviews and consultations, and various amendments to the Act, changes have been little more than cosmetic. As a result, Canadians have been denied the access to information so important for a healthy democracy. 

Marcellus Turner, CEO and Chief Librarian at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, and Carla Graebner, Data Services and Government Information Librarian at Simon Fraser University, are the newest members of the Centre for Free Expression Working Group on Intellectual Freedom. Turner spent the past ten years as the Executive Director and Chief Librarian at The Seattle Public Library in Seattle, Washington which, in 2020 under his leadership, was awarded the prestigious 2020 Library of the Year by Gale/Library Journal. 

In a joint letter to Prime Minister Trudeau, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, World Press Freedom Canada, and the Centre for Free Expression call on the Canadian government to take even more robust action against the Government of Belarus after President Alexander Lukashenko`s direct order to have a Belarusian military aircraft force a Ryanair flight traveling from Athens, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania, to land in Belarus’ capital, Minsk, to illegally arrest and imprison Roman Protasevich, a

Michèle Brill-Edwards and John O’Connor are joining the group that guides the Centre for Free Expression’s many whistleblowing initiatives.