The federal government will amend its controversial lawful access bill to address concerns about encryption and metadata, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said Wednesday. “The encryption issue is one we will clarify because this bill was never meant to breach encryption,” Anandasangaree said. He said the government’s understanding of the language in the bill on systemic vulnerabilities […]

An Appeal: FIPA Calls on the Public and Civil Society to Oppose the Bill 9 Amendments to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act Victoria 2026.05.27 – FIPA is calling on members of the public and civil society organizations concerned about transparency and the right to know to join us in continued opposition to Bill 9, the Freedom of Information […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Justice Department indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center is part of a “top-down” campaign of retribution against President Donald Trump’s perceived political enemies and constitutes a vindictive prosecution that must be dismissed, lawyers for the nonprofit argued Tuesday in urging a judge to toss the case out. The Alabama-based nonprofit […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden sued the Justice Department on Tuesday in an effort to block the release of audio recordings and transcripts of the former president’s interview with a ghostwriter that were obtained by the special counsel who investigated his handling of classified documents. Biden’s lawyers said in a lawsuit filed in Washington’s federal […]

The City of Toronto has a $2-million annual grant program to help Rockcliffe-Smythe residents recover from basement flooding. So far, it’s distributed just under $60,000 — less than 3% of the annual budget. The Rockcliffe No Fault Grant for Basement Flooding Damages Program provides “owners of certain residential properties within the Rockcliffe Special Policy Area” […]

Three days after the February mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., government officials warned Prime Minister Mark Carney that online sentiment was shifting from collective grief toward “emerging accountability narratives” — including questions about mental health intervention, firearms access and whether warning signs were missed. The memo to Carney from the Privy Council Office said […]

Ontario’s newly passed ban on invasive medical research involving dogs and cats appears poised to directly affect Queen’s University’s controversial hemophilia dog colony, despite the university saying it remains unclear how the legislation will impact existing research programs. The amendments to Ontario’s Animals for Research Act were included in Bill 75 and passed final reading […]

A provincewide grassroots movement will be coming to the streets of Georgetown. The Georgetown Fight Ford demonstration is scheduled for Saturday, May 30, running from 1 to 2 p.m. According to the organizers’ website, which acts as an extension of two Facebook groups related to sharing news of upcoming protests, residents planning to attend will […]

As the Doug Ford government prepared to replace the Endangered Species Act with new legislation, the province’s natural resources staff warned of weakened habitat protections, reduced oversight and new gaps in enforcement, according to documents obtained by The Narwhal.   In March 2026, the Endangered Species Act was officially replaced with the Species Conservation Act, which […]

Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government is reversing its decision to go to court to prevent the release of documents about its ill-fated blue licence plates. Lawyers for the government applied for a judicial review of decisions by Ontario’s information and privacy commissioner ordering the province to release documents in response to a freedom-of-information request by […]

On May 24, 2026, the ICLMG submitted our brief opposing state surveillance Bill C-22 to the SECU committee studying the bill. You won’t see the usual accompanying video of our testimony at committee because we are amongst a large group of organizations that defend human rights and civil liberties whose requests to appear at committee […]

Your Access and Privacy Online News Summary for Saturday, May 23rd. This week, privacy and transparency are colliding with some of the biggest political and public policy questions in the country.  We begin with a network update on Bill C-22, the federal lawful access bill that civil liberties groups are warning could expand surveillance powers and […]