BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association
Your Data Your Rights
Networks and Partners
The International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
The ICLMG is a national coalition of Canadian civil society organizations that was established in the aftermath of the September, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. The coalition brings together 43 NGOs, unions, professional associations, faith groups, environmental organizations, human rights and civil liberties advocates, as well as groups representing immigrant and refugee communities in Canada.
The mandate of the ICLMG is to defend the civil liberties and human rights set out in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, federal and provincial laws, and international human rights instruments in the context of the so-called ‘war on terrorism’ in Canada. The ICLMG’s areas of work and concerns include anti-terror legislation, drone strikes, criminalization of dissent, torture, surveillance, security certificates, the oversight of police and intelligence agencies, the North American Security Perimeter, No-Fly lists, etc.
The Right to Information Alliance of Canada
The Right to Information Alliance Canada (RTIAC) is network of organizations dedicated to helping advance the advocacy of access and transparency issues by member organizations individually and collectively.
We share information and new developments with each other, help ensure that necessary background research is done, draw attention to joint advocacy opportunities, facilitate joint submissions and statements, help coordinate joint actions, and help amplify the voices of member organizations.
As a network, each organization free to join or not join in any individual RTIAC initiative. All initiatives are undertaken in the names of the participating organizations.
- BC Civil Liberties Association
- BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association
- Canadian Association of Journalists
- Canadian Civil Liberties Association
- Canadian Institute for Information and Privacy
- Canadian Media Lawyers Association
- Centre for Access to Info & Justice
- Centre for Free Expression
- Centre for Law and Democracy
- Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
- Democracy Watch
- Environmental Defence
- Greenpeace Canada
- Ontario Council of Hospital Unions
- National Claims Research Directors
- News Media Canada
- World Press Freedom Canada
Voter Privacy & Your Political Privacy
Federal political parties collect, share, and use your personal information under weaker privacy rules than most businesses and public institutions in Canada. They can build detailed profiles about you from voter lists, data brokers, canvassing, and social media, while giving you little ability to access, correct, or delete that information.
This fall, federal political parties will be confronted over their efforts to dodge privacy safeguards when the petition will be formally tabled in the House of Commons, triggering a debate on the issue. The government will then have 45 days to respond with an official explanation of why it believes the current privacy loophole for political parties should remain in place.
You can also call or email your Member of Parliament and tell them you expect them to protect your privacy by supporting Petition e-7237. We will keep you updated throughout the process!
- BC Civil Liberties Association
- Canadian Civil Liberties Association
- Open Media
- Centre for Digital Rights
Our Fair Deal
Right now an international agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is being negotiated by Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Peru, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Vietnam, and the United States. The changes to copyright required by the TPP would reduce our access to information and restrict our ability to innovate, both on and offline.
Changing our copyright laws in ways that restrict the open Internet and economic opportunity are unfair to citizens, businesses, creators, and civil society organizations. Not only could such changes raise prices for users of copyright works, but they could also stifle our knowledge economy and chill innovation.
Starting at first in New Zealand and then connecting with organizations and people internationally, a group of individuals from the fields of Internet policy, art, information technology, and law got together to discuss a TPP campaign with a copyright focus. What resulted was the idea of a fair deal, one that opens up trade opportunities for TPP member states but doesn’t force copyright and other IP-related changes on us that could damage our future.
Find out more at The Fair Deal Coalition.
Protect Our Privacy
A broad-based coalition of citizens, experts, organizations, and businesses have come together to defend our right to privacy based on a common statement of principle.
The government has been caught engaging in secretive, expensive, and out of control spying on our private lives, and is trying to push through a new law that will provide immunity to telecom companies that hand over our sensitive information to authorities even when they don’t have a warrant.
- Secretive: The government has been caught tracking law-abiding Canadians and collecting our sensitive private data.
- Expensive: The government is about to spend $4-billion of our tax dollars to house new spying operations.
- Out of control: In recent years there have been over 3,000 breaches of sensitive citizen data, affecting approximately 725,000 of us.
The Protect Our Privacy Coalition endorses the following Statement:
“More than ever, Canadians need strong, genuinely transparent, and properly enforced safeguards to secure privacy rights. We call on Government to put in place effective legal measures to protect the privacy of every resident of Canada against intrusion by government entities.”
Find our more at Protect Our Privacy Coalition.
Lean about straightforward privacy tools to help prevent government spying on your computer and phone at Reset the Net.
